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History of the Revolt of the 
United Netherlands 




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•?V^1@%;5,^:^'.v^ 



,Y 







Cl^e i^fsjtort of 



m)t aaetoit of t^t 



BY 



Friedrich Schiller 

Translated by 

E. B. Eastwick 




Edited by Nathan Haskell Dole 



Boston J- Francis A. Niccolls 
& Company j, Publishers 



I "hiE liSFiAFfY OF 
j CCx^QRESS, 

I Two CuriE3 HeceivED 

NOV. 25 1901 

COPVRtQHT eNTRY 

CLAgS ^ XXc M^. 

a O 3 2)0 

COPY J. ^ 



lEtittton lie Huxe 

This Edition is Limited to One Thousand Copies, 
of which this is copy 

No. .2S5.. 



Copyright, igoi 
By Francis A. Niccolls & Co. 



^^^'^ 



^^^^ 



^ 



dEoIonfal Press 

Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co. 

Boston. Mass.. U S. A 



Contents 



BOOK PAGE 

Editor's Introduction ..... vii 

The Author's Preface ..... xix 

Introduction ....... xxiii 

I. Earlier History of the Xetherlands up 

to the Sixteenth Century. . . . 1 

n. Cardinal Granvella 72 

III. Conspiracy of the Nobles .... 143 

IV. The Iconoclasts 196 

Trial and Execution of Counts Egmont 

and Horn 303 

Siege of Antwerp by the Prince of Parma, 

IN THE Years 1584 and 1585 . . . 312 



Revolt of the Netherlands. 



List of Illustrations 



Geuex (Beggar) Taktn'g Leave of Hi: 

(^see page 172^ ..... 
The Delirium of the Eack 
The Banquet of the Beggars 
Sitting of the Blood Council 
" Furious sallies of the besieged " 



FA6B 

Fiancee >^ 

Frontispiece 
. 46 
. 167 " 
. 295 - 
. 319 ^ 



Revolt of the Netherlands. 



Introduction 

Goethe seems to stand forth from the shades of the past 
larger than life, with a statuesque dignity and imperturbable 
calmness, more like the Greek ideal of a god made flesh than 
any other man of modern times. Schiller is rather the per- 
sonification of youth and strenuous endeavour. Through 
the clouds that enveloped so large a part of his life gleams 
the brilliant light of the spirit of joy. Schiller seems nearer 
to us than Goethe, just as " Our Euripides the Human " is 
somewhat more sympathetic than -^schylus. Goethe was 
favoured by all the circumstances and gifts of life. N'o 
trials of poverty, no conflicts of authority, no ofiicial restraint 
hedged the free development of his genius. Though the 
environment of a petty German court may not have been 
the most favourable for his best growth, still he proceeded to 
the goal that he had early set for himself and was not turned 
aside from it even when through the intrigues of Caroline 
Jagemann he was contemptuously dismissed by his beloved 
Karl August from the management of the Weimar theatre. 

Schiller illustrates the power of genius reaching its goal in 
spite of circumstances. Pathetic as his story is, one would 
hardly have had it different. His stern and autocratic 
father, a regular martinet, would have made him a pastor, 
and he might have written odes like Klopstock. Karl 
Eugen, Duke of Wurtemberg, took him from his father's 
control, and tried to force him into the narrow career of a 
regimental surgeon attached to a decrepit regiment of half- 
paid cuirassiers. But his genius had too powerful wings to 
be so " cribbed, cabined, and confined." 

Just as Goethe in his youth had imbibed a passion for the 
theatre, so Schiller, even when he was inclined to follow his 

vii 



viii INTRODUCTION 

father's wishes and study theology, was initiated into the fas- 
cinations of the stage. It was wonderful with what clever- 
ness he suited to dramatic presentation his own instinctive 
aspirations toward liberty, taking for the gToundwork of 
his first drama a simple tale written by the unfortunate 
Schubart, imprisoned by the same arbitrary Duke Karl 
Eugen in the gloomy dungeon of the Hohenasperg. This 
is the story that grew into "The Robbers." A German 
nobleman had two sons, the one, Karl, a fiery, frank, gen- 
erous youth of great capacities, the other, Wilhelm, — narrow- 
minded, sly, and envious. Karl, while at the university, falls 
in with riotous companions, and is overwhelmed with debts. 
Wilhelm, who remains at home, discovers the situation and 
tells his father with exaggerations. Karl takes flight from his 
creditors, and enlists in the Prussian army, and is wounded 
in battle. He repents of his follies and writes a letter beg- 
ging his father's forgiveness. His brother intercepts the 
letter, and the father knows nothing about it. Peace ensues ; 
Karl leaves the service and, in order to earn his own living, 
takes service with a peasant who lives not far from his father's 
castle. His diligence and sobriety win for him the respect of 
the whole community. One day, while out felling trees, he 
rescues his father from a band of robbers that had attacked 
him in the forest. It is discovered that the instigator of the 
murderous outrage is the hypocritical son, Wilhelm. The 
father recognises his long-lost prodigal son. Karl begs his 
father to pardon his miserable brother's crime, and he does 
so. Thus all ends peacefully. 

Schiller's dramatic instinct seized upon this theme, and 
wrought it into a play, fiery and extravagant and unnatural, 
but, at the same time, appealing to the great German public 
of his day. Carlyle says of it : "In perusing this play we 
are alternately shocked and inspired ; there is perpetual con- 
flict between our understanding and our feelings. Yet the 
latter, on the whole, come off victorious. ' The Robbers ' is a 
tragedy that will long find readei-s to astonish, and, with all 
its faults, to move. It stands in our imagination like some 



INTRODUCTION ix 

ancient rugged pile of a barbarons age, — irregular, fantastic, 
useless, but grand in its height and massiveness and black- 
frowning strength. It will long remain a singular monument 
of the early genius and early fortune of its author." 

It was performed for the first time at the ^National Theatre 
at Mannheim on January 13, 1782. He had been engaged in 
composing it since 1777. In 1776 his first published poem, en- 
titled ••Evening," had appeared in Hang's Sicahian Magazine. 
It manifested no trace of originality or any sign of promise ; 
but " The Eobbers," in spite of its bathos and its numerous 
other faults, achieved instant success, and by some he was 
hailed as the futui-e Shakespeare of Germany. It was per- 
formed in September, 1782, in Hamburg and in Leipzig. 
Imitations of it sprang up on every hand ; a Berlin theatre- 
poet, named Pltimicke, wrote a variation on it. A certain 
Frau von TVallenrodt published a six-act sequel to " The 
Robbers," entitled •' Karl Moor and his companions after 
the Separation-scene near the Old Tower : a Eepresentation 
of lofty human nature, as a companion piece to Einaldo 
Rinaldini." During the French Eevolution a piece, entitled 
" Robert, Chef des Brigands, Imitated from the Grerman," was 
played with great applause at various Parisian theatres, and 
about the same time an English paraphrase or imitation 
called " The Robbers, a Tragedy," appeared on the London 
stage. Of coiu'se the secret of this popularity is to be discov- 
ered in the state of public opinion, which was beginning to 
revolt against the tyrannical power of princes, and which in 
France led to the terrific overthrow of the ancien regime. 

The Duke of TViirtemberg discovered that Schiller had 
proceeded to Mannheim to attend the performance of " The 
Robbers " without permission : this he regarded as a sort of 
desertion. He also saw in the piece itself a covert attack on 
the institution which he represented, and he forbade Schiller 
from that time forth to publish anything without first sub- 
mitting it to him as censor, and, moreover, to confine his 
writing entirely to medical subjects under pain of arrest and 
confinement in the Hohenasperg. The poet, already restive 



X INTRODUCTION 

under the irksome restraint of his humiliating position, for he 
was obliged to wear the ridiculous uniform of a subaltern, and 
was forbidden to increase his meagre pay by private practice, 
decided that it was time for him to break loose and fulfil his 
destiny. The chief consideration that weighed against this 
project of escape was the danger that the duke would make 
his parents suffer for it. As a matter of precaution, and 
because he knew that his father would surely withhold his 
consent, he confided only in his mother and sister. There 
was another objection. He had borrowed considerable money 
in order to print the first edition of his play, and his escape 
seemed like running away from his creditors. It seemed, how- 
ever, the only thing for him to do. Under the name of Doc- 
tor Ritter, and accompanied by his faithful friend, Streicher, 
Schiller took the venturesome step. Often afterward he 
remarked, " ' The Robbers ' cost me family and country.'* 
All that he had as assurance against the future was the man- 
uscript of a new play, — " Fiesco." The Mannheim actors were 
eager to hear it, and they came to the house where Schiller 
was in hiding. The author read it, but before he had fin- 
ished the second act most of them had rudely left the room. 
Meier confidentially asked Streicher if it could be that Schiller 
had really written " The Robbers," and when assured that he 
had, he demanded whether it was not possible that some one 
else was trying to palm off " Fiesco " on them. 

Schiller was deeply wounded and disappointed. He even 
wondered if he had been mistaken in his estimate of his own 
abilities. Fortunately, Meier felt interest enough in the piece 
to ask permission to finish it, and the next morning he re- 
turned it, enthusiastically acclaiming it as a masterpiece, and 
a great improvement on " The Robbers." 

The whole trouble had been that Schiller's Swabian accent 
and his monotonous declamation had entirely hidden its 
beauties from the listeners. 

Count Dalberg, the founder and director of the National 
Theatre, was selfish and cowardly ; he was afraid of incurring 
the ill-will of Karl Eugen, whose guest he had recently been, 



INTRODUCTION xi 

and he trumped up all sorts of excuses for not accepting the 
play. Even after Schiller had at his suggestion made various 
radical changes in it he still refused it, and declined to ad- 
vance the poet the small sum of money which he urgently 
needed. Schiller's beautiful spirit was here shown : he was 
never heard to utter one word of reproach, but when a little 
later Dalberg was almost compelled by his lack of practicable 
plays to approach the dramatist, and offered him what to us 
seems a small salary for a year's work, to include three plays 
and their general superintendence, this was to Schiller like 
light breaking through the clouds. " Fiesco " was given with 
great success ; this was followed by " Louise IVIillerin," after- 
ward entitled " Intrigue and Love," which gave such a faith- 
ful representation of life and manners at a petty German 
court, where the reigning duke had a more than paternal 
power over the bodies and possessions of his unfortunate 
subjects. 

In these three first plays of Schiller's immaturity are the 
same characteristics : the burning hatred of oppression, the 
implicit plea for liberty of thought and action, the senti- 
mental overflow of unrestrained feeling, and the keen appre- 
ciation of dramatic motives. In spite of their faults, they 
still hold the stage. They still appeal to the great Ger- 
man public. Zelter, writing to Goethe about a month after 
Schiller's death, after announcing a very brilliant and ear- 
nest performance of " Die Rauber," which employed the 
whole strength of the company and the resources of the 
Berlin Theati-e, and densely packed the house, said : 

" Our public, with whom this play is a great favourite, 
received it in the old way, but with redoubled enthusiasm." 

In those days the spirit which breathed through these 
early plays was like pure, fresh air rushing through dun- 
geons, though to us it seems overtempestuous and tinctured 
with the salphurous-smelling ozone of recent thunder-storms. 

One of Schiller's first purchases after his escape from the 
ducal service was a translation of Shakespeare, but, while 
mightily impressed by the great English dramatist's genius, 



xii INTRODUCTION 

he was offended by the way comedy was employed to serve 
as a foil for pathos. Schiller steered clear of what he consid- 
ered this essential fault, and therefore his plays in their 
unrelieved sombreness have certainly given rise to the com- 
mon though false impression that Schiller was lacking in the 
sense of humour. In this respect he may be compared with 
Marlowe. Marlowe was cut off untimely at a still earlier age 
than Schiller, but " Tamburlane the Great," in its ludicrous 
magniloquence and stilted vehemence, and also in its mag- 
nificent promise, strikingly reminds one of Schiller's early 
dramas. No one can doubt that had Marlowe lived he 
also might have written a drama as much greater than 
" The Jew of Malta " as " Wallenstein " is greater than 
" Fiesco." The nearest concession that Schiller made to 
introducing comedy into his tragedies is the first play of 
the Wallenstein trilogy, and it is said that the rollicking 
humour of that was contributed by Goethe. 

The comparison between Schiller and Marlowe might be 
carried still further : in both we see the restraining influences 
of time ; both had the dramatic genius implanted in their 
natures ; both in comparatively few years developed amaz- 
ingly, and gave promise of greater things to come. And 
Marlowe's influence on Shakespeare and the English drama 
may be compared with that of the German dramatist on his 
successors. Great as "Emilia Galotti" and " ]N"athan der 
Weise " are, they seem to stand on one side from the path 
that leads from " The Robbers " to Sudermann's " Sunken 
Bell." 

Schiller's term of service with Count Dalberg lasted only 
through the first year of theu' contract. The actor Iffland, 
whom he had hailed as one of Germany's coming actors, had 
also dramatic ambitions, and saw in Schiller a rival in his 
art as he was a rival in love. Schiller was too prone to lay 
out great projects. Ifiiand succeeded in having produced on 
the Mannheim stage a little drama which evidently turned 
Schiller into ridicule. Schiller failed to finish his drama of 
<< Don Carlos," which he had long before outlined, and at the 



INTRODUCTION xiii 

end of August, 1784, Dalberg not only failed to renew the 
contract but allowed him to drop out of the connection 
without even a farewell greeting. The poet had been obliged 
to spend money freely. His obligations had increased. He 
was in debt to his kind friend, Madame von Wolzogen, who 
needed the money. He was in desperate straits. This was 
the darkest period of his life, and more than once even his 
optimism was forced to exclaim, " Would that I had died 
when I was a child." 

In June, 1784, he received one day in a package from 
Leipzig four portraits, a musical setting to one of his songs, 
and an anonymous letter, all contained in a beautifully 
embroidered letter-case. It did not take him long to dis- 
cover that the gift was from the jurist Christian Gottfried 
Korner and his coterie of friends. A correspondence sprang 
up between them, and Schiller, with charming frankness, 
disclosed his necessities, and suggested an advance of money 
on some work of his. The money came; Schiller paid his 
most pressing debts, and about the middle of April, 1785, he 
entered Leipzig and a new life. 

The expression of this new life may perhaps be found in 
his "Hymn to Joy," which Beethoven took for the choral 
part of the l!^inth Symphony. Korner was married the fol- 
lowing August, and went to Dresden to live. Schiller was 
his first guest, and here for the first time the dramatist came 
to realise how necessary it was for him to plant deep roots 
into the soil, to develop wisely and well, to found a happy 
home of his own. The influence of Korner upon him was 
very great, and its first fruits were seen in the so-called 
" Philosophical Letters," the work of the two friends con- 
jointly, which were printed first in the "Thalia" for 1786. 
Still greater growth in mental powers was displayed in his 
first mature drama, " Don Carlos," which, in spite of its over- 
length and a certain lack of unity, has a nobility of thought 
and grace of diction that render it a masterpiece in the 
estimation of all that love the drama. 

The influence of " Hamlet " has been detected in " Don 



xiv INTRODUCTION 

Carlos," but only in the title role ; another figure more en- 
thralled Schiller's changed ideals, that of the Marquis Posa, 
who has been called the prophet and martyr of his ideal, who 
is the victim of that religious fanaticism which Schiller had 
come to detest as he had earlier detested the arbitrary will of 
the absolute tyrant. The Marquis Posa as the herald of 
liberty of thought has had unspeakable influence on the 
German youth. " Don Carlos " was completed in 1787. 

A love affair with the fascinating but not altogether 
reputable Henriette von Arnim came nearly wrecking his 
career, but, fortunately, Korner and his friends succeeded 
in disentangling him, and in accordance with their advice he 
left Dresden for a time. It proved to be for ever. He went 
to pay a visit to Weimar ; the reigning duke had akeady 
made him a councillor, and he had drawings to that city, 
which was then the centre of Germany's literary life. Prob- 
ably with some such hope in mind he had refused a flattering 
offer from the great theatre director, Friedrich Ludwig 
Schroder, to become associated with him in Hamburg. At 
Weimar he made many important acquaintances, although 
Goethe and the duke were away in Italy. After a few weeks 
in Weimar he went with friends to Jena, and was invited to 
assist in some historical writing for some of the Jena periodi- 
cals, and thus came about his " Letters concerning Don 
Carlos," his " Rebellion of the Netherlands," and other prose 
works. Here also he wrote his famous poem to the Gods of 
Greece, which attracted wide attention and aroused no little 
criticism, some regarding it as sacrilegious. 

In December, 1787, Schiller happened to be riding through 
Rudolstadt with his friend, Wilhelm von Wolzogen, and they 
stopped at the house of Wolzogen's relatives, the Lengefeldts. 
Here Schiller met the young woman who, in February, 1790, 
became his wife. From this time forth, except for his shat- 
tered health, Schiller's life was one of unvarying success. He 
was appointed professor of history at the University of Jena, 
and his first lecture, given on May 26, 1789, attracted a 
brilliant audience, who did not forget that he was the author 



INTRODUCTION xv 

of "The Kobbers." In December, at a concert at Erfurt, 
where he was visiting with his wife, he was taken with a 
severe attack of inflammation of the lungs. Before he was 
entirely well he returned to Jena and resumed his lectures, 
but almost immediately suffered a relapse. The rest of his 
days were a long struggle with illness ; but it was a heroic 
struggle, and illustrates how much a man may accomplish 
in spite of circumstances. 

In May, 1794, Goethe went over to Jena to attend the 
regular session of the Scientific Society, to which he belonged. 
Schiller was also present, and it chanced that the two men, 
who had hitherto scarcely met, passed out together and fell 
into conversation. Goethe grew interested, and followed 
Schiller into his house. From that hour they were devoted 
friends. Devious, indeed, had been the paths which had led 
them into common ground, but at last their very differences 
made all the more lasting and beautiful their friendship. 
And just as their friendship began Schiller had arranged with 
Cotta to bring out Die Horen, the first coadjutors in which 
were Goethe and Kant. In this periodical Schiller began 
once more to display his poetic activity. Die Horen for 1795 
and the Musenalmanach for 1796 are notable for the many 
poems which typified his new inspiration. The German people, 
however, did not support the magazine. Only three volumes 
of it testify to the industry of the editor and the neglect of 
readers ; it had to stop. The epigrams with which the two 
poets revenged themselves scarcely atone for the loss which 
the cessation of Die Horen occasioned. Nevertheless, in the 
Musenalmanach for 1797 and 1798 appeared that magnificent 
series of ballads which included " The Cranes of Ibycus,'* 
•' The Glove," " The Diver," "Knight Toggenburg." 

Ever since Schiller's attention had been attracted to the 
Netherlands and the Thirty Years' War had the figure of 
Wallen stein risen before him as the possible protagonist of a 
drama. The first intimation of the scheme is found in 1791. 
While he was trying to recover his health at Karlsbad his 
mind kept brooding over dt. At last, in 1796, he had 



xvi INTRODUCTION 

decided to write it in prose, thereby following Humboldt's 
advice and his own impression that actors did not easily com- 
mit verse to memory. He followed his first inclinations, 
however, and Goethe insisted that the new play should be 
given at Weimar. There the first performance of " Wallen- 
stein's Lager " took place under Goethe's personal direction, 
in October, 1798. By the last of December " Die Piccolo- 
mini" was finished, and was performed on the 30th of 
January of the following year. " Wallenstein's Death " was 
sent to Weimar about the middle of March, and the 
complete trilogy was given on the 15th, 17th, and 20th 
of April. All over Germany it was performed with almost 
uniform success. Schiller, who had not hesitated to criti- 
cise his earliest pieces severely, was satisfied with this ; 
he wrote Korner : " I find that the clearness and the circum- 
spection which are the fruit of a later epoch have detracted 
nothing from the warmth of an earlier one," and again, 
" You will miss none of the fire and fervour (Innigkeit) of 
my best years, and the roughness of that epoch has disap- 
peared. The serenity of strength, the restrained power, will 
satisfy your requirements." 

The last six years of Schiller's life were devoted to dramatic 
compositions. At Goethe's instigation he settled in Weimar, 
and there he produced, besides the " Song of the Bell," 
"Maria Stuart," -'The Maid of Orleans," "The Bride of 
Messina," and " William Tell," and his festspiel, " The 
Crowning of the Arts," " Phaedra," and the unfinished 
fragment of the Russian tragedy of " Demetrius." Truly 
a splendid contribution to the dramatic literature of his 
nation ! " Tell " was finished on the 18th of February, 
1804. He was invited to go to Berlin and work for the 
theatre there. He went to look over the prospects, and was 
surprised to find how famous he had become. At the Court 
Theatre there "The Bride of Messina," "The Maid of 
Orleans," and " Wallenstein's Death " were given with unprec- 
edented success. When he appeared in his box the whole 
audience rose to their feet to greet him. He was welcomed 



INTRODUCTION xvii 

by Prussia's great Queen Luise, and everywhere he was 
received with ovations. But the question whether he would 
settle there was decided for him by the state of his health. 
The progress of his disease was slow but sure. On the 9th 
of May, 1805, he passed quietly away, surrounded by his 
dearest friends. 

As a lyric poet Schiller has been excelled by other Ger- 
mans, but his position as a dramatist still remains firm and 
secure. His skill in weaving into dramatic form the most 
unworkable material, his knowledge of motives, his concep- 
tion of contrasting characters, his lofty ideals of freedom, of 
toleration, of unselfishness, render his dramas educational and 
moral, as well as stimulating and entrancing. 

Schiller takes rank with the greatest dramatists of all 
time, with Sophocles, Euripides, and ^schylus, with Shake- 
speare and the famous English play- writers of Shakespeare's 
time, with Corneille and Racine, with Pushkin and Ostrovsky. 
In some respects he is the greatest of all the dramatists of his 
own century, and he and Goethe will for ever stand together 
as the brightest lights of German literature. 

Nathan Haskell Dole. 



The Author's Preface 

Many years ago, when I read the History of the 
Belgian Ee volution in Watson's excellent work, I was 
seized with an enthusiasm which political events but 
rarely excite. On fuither reflection I felt that this 
enthusiastic feeling had arisen less fi'oni the book itself 
than from the ardent workings of my own imagina- 
tion, which had imparted to the recorded materials the 
particular form that so fascinated me. These imagina- 
tions, therefore, I felt a wish to fix, to multiply, and to 
strengthen ; these exalted sentiments I was anxious 
to extend by communicating them to others. This was 
my principal motive for commencing the present history, 
my only vocation to wiite it. The execution of this 
design caiTied me farther than in the beginning I had 
expected. A closer acquaintance with my materials 
enabled me to discover defects previously unnoticed, 
long waste tracts to be filled up, apparent contradic- 
tions to be reconciled, and isolated facts to be brought 
into connection with the rest of the subject. Xot so 
much with the view of enriching my history with new 
facts as of seeking a key to old ones, I betook myself 
to the original sources, and thus what was originally 
intended to be only a general outline expanded under 
my hands into an elaborate history. The first part, 
which concludes with the Duchess of Parma's depar- 
ture from the Xetherlands, must be looked upon only 
as the introduction to the history of the Eevolution 
itself, which did not come to an open outbreak till 
the government of her successor. I have bestowed the 

xix 



XX THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE 

more care and attention upon this introductory period 
the more the generahty of writers who had previously 
treated of it seemed to me deficient in these very quali- 
ties. Moreover, it is in my opinion the more important 
as being the root and source of all the subsequent 
events. If, then, the first volume should appear to any 
as barren in important incident, dwelling prolixly on 
trifles, or, rather, should seem at first sight profuse of 
reflections, and in general tediously minute, it must 
be remembered that it was precisely out of small 
beginnings that the Eevolution was gradually de- 
veloped; and that all the great results which follow 
sprang out of a countless number of trifling and little 
circumstances. 

A nation like the one before us invariably takes its 
first steps with doubts and uncertainty, to move after- 
wards only the more rapidly for its previous hesitation. 
I proposed, therefore, to follow the same method in 
describing this rebelhon. The longer the reader delays 
on the introduction the more familiar he becomes with 
the actors in this history, and the scene in which they 
took a part, so much the more rapidly and unerringly 
shall I be able to lead him through the subsequent 
periods, where the accumulation of materials will for- 
bid a slowness of step or minuteness of attention. 

As for the authorities of our history, there is not so 
much cause to complain of their paucity as of their 
extreme abundance, since it is indispensable to read 
them all to obtain that clear view of the whole subject 
to which the perusal of a part, however large, is always 
prejudicial. From the unequal, partial, and often con- 
tradictory narratives of the same occurrences it is often 
extremely difficult to seize the truth, which in all is 
ahke partly concealed and to be found complete in 
none. In this first volume, beside de Thou, Strada, 
Eeyd, Grotius, Meteren, Burgundius, Meursius, Benti- 
voglio, and some moderns, the Memoirs of Counsellor 



THE author's preface xxi 

Hopper, the life and correspondence of his friend 
Vighus, the records of the trials of the Counts of 
Hoorne and Egmont, the defence of the Prince of 
Orange, and some few others have been my guides. I 
must here acknowledge my obligations to a work com- 
piled with much industry and critical acumen, and 
written with singular truthfulness and impartiality. I 
allude to the general history of the United Nether- 
lands which was published in Holland during the 
present century. Besides many original documents 
which I could not otherwise have had access to, it has 
abstracted all that is valuable in the excellent works of 
Bos, Hooft, Brandt, Le Clerc, which either were impos- 
sible for me to procure or were not available to my 
use, as being written in Dutch, which I do not under- 
stand. An otherwise ordinary writer, Eichard Dinoth, 
has also been of service to me by the many extracts he 
gives from the pamphlets of the day, which have been 
long lost. I have in vain endeavoured to procure the 
correspondence of Cardinal Granvella, which also would 
no doubt have thrown much light upon the history of 
these times. The lately published work on the Spanish 
Inquisition by my excellent countryman. Professor 
Spittler of Gottingen, reached me too late for its 
sagacious and important contents to be available for 
my purpose. 

The more I am convinced of the importance of the 
French history, the more I lament that it was not in 
my power to study, as I could have wished, its copious 
annals in the original sources and contemporary docu- 
ments, and to reproduce it abstracted of the form in 
which it was transmitted to me by the more intelhgent 
of my predecessors, and thereby emancipate myself from 
the influence which every talented author exercises 
more or less upon his readers. But to effect this the 
work of a few years must have become the labour of a 
life. My aim in making this attempt will be more 



xxii THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE 

than attained if it should convince a portion of the 
reading public of the possibility of writing a history 
with historic truth without making a trial of patience 
to the reader; and if it should extort from another 
portion the confession that history can borrow from 
a cognant art \Adthout thereby, of necessity, becoming a 
romance. 

Weimai', Michaelmas Fair, 1788. 



Introduction 

Of those important political events which make the 
sixteenth century to take rank among the brightest of 
the world's epochs, the foundation of the freedom of the 
Netherlands appears to me one of the most remarkable. 
If the glittering exploits of ambition and the pernicious 
lust of power claim our admiration, how much more so 
should an event in which oppressed humanity struggled 
for its noblest rights, where with the good cause un- 
wonted powers were united, and the resources of reso- 
lute despair triumphed in unequal contest over the 
terrible arts of tyranny. 

Great and encouraging is the reflection that there is 
a resource left us against the arrogant usurpations of 
despotic power ; that its best-contrived plans against 
the Hberty of mankind may be frustrated ; that reso- 
lute opposition can weaken even the outstretched arm of 
tyranny ; and that heroic perseverance can eventually 
exhaust its fearful resources. Never did this truth 
affect me so sensibly as in tracing the history of that 
memorable rebellion which for ever severed the United 
Netherlands from the Spanish Crown. Therefore I 
thought it not unworth the while to attempt to ex- 
hibit to the world this grand memorial of social union, 
in the hope that it may awaken in the breast of my 
reader a spirit-stirring consciousness of his own 
powers, and give a new and irrefragable example of 
what in a good cause men may both dare and venture, 
and what by union they may accomplish. It is not 
the extraordinary or heroic features of this event that 



XXIU 



xxiv INTRODUCTION 

induce me to describe it. The annals of the world 
record perhaps many similar enterprises, which may 
have been even bolder in the conception and more 
brilliant in the execution. Some states have fallen 
after a nobler struggle; others have risen with more 
exalted strides. Nor are we here to look for eminent 
heroes, colossal talents, or those marvellous exploits 
which the history of past times presents in such rich 
abundance. Those times are gone; such men are no 
more. In the soft lap of refinement we have suffered 
the energetic powers to become enervate which those 
ages called into action and rendered indispensable. 
With admiring awe we wonder at these gigantic images 
of the past as a feeble old man gazes on the athletic 
sports of youth. 

Not so, however, in the history before us. The peo- 
ple here presented to our notice w^ere the most peaceful 
in our quarter of the globe, and less capable than their 
neighbours of that heroic spirit which stamps a lofty 
character even on the most insignificant actions. The 
pressure of circumstances with its peculiar influence 
surprised them and forced a transitory gTeatness upon 
them, which they never could have possessed and per- 
haps will never possess again. It is, indeed, exactly 
this want of heroic grandeur which renders this event 
peculiarly instructive ; and while others aim at showing 
the superiority of genius over chance, I shall here 
paint a scene where necessity creates genius and acci- 
dent makes heroes. 

If in any case it be allowable to recognise the inter- 
vention of Providence in human affairs it is certainly 
so in the present history, its course appears so contra- 
dictory to reason and experience. PhiHp II., the most 
powerful sovereign of his line — whose dreaded su- 
premacy menaced the independence of Europe — whose 
treasures surpassed the collective wealth of all the 
monarchs of Christendom besides — whose ambitious 



INTRODUCTION xxv 

projects were backed by numerous and well-disciplined 
armies — whose troops, hardened by long and bloody 
wars, and confident in past victories and in the irre- 
sistible prowess of this nation, were eager for any 
enterprise that promised glory and spoil, and ready to 
second with prompt obedience the daring genius of 
their leaders — this dreaded potentate here appears 
before us obstinately pursuing one favourite project, 
devoting to it the untiring efforts of a long ,reign, and 
bringing all these terrible resources to bear upon it ; 
but forced, in the evening of his reign, to abandon it — 
here we see the mighty Philip II. engaging in combat 
with a few weak and powerless adversaries, and retiring 
from it at last with disgrace. 

And with what adversaries ? Here, a peaceful tribe 
of fishermen and shepherds, in an almost forgotten 
corner of Europe, which with difficulty they had rescued 
from the ocean ; the sea their profession, and at once 
their wealth and their plague ; poverty with freedom 
their highest blessing, their glory, their virtue. There, 
a harmless, moral, commercial people, revelling in the 
abundant fruits of thriving industry, and jealous of 
the maintenance of laws which had proved their bene- 
factors. In the happy leisure of affluence they forsake 
the narrow circle of immediate wants and learn to 
thirst after higher and nobler gratifications. The new 
views of truth, whose benignant dawn now broke over 
Europe, cast a fertihsing beam on this favoured clime, 
and the free burgher admitted with joy the light which 
oppressed and miserable slaves shut out. A spirit 
of independence, which is the ordinary companion of 
prosperity and freedom, lured this people on to exam- 
ine the authority of antiquated opinions and to break 
an ignominious chain. But the stern rod of despotism 
was held suspended over them ; arbitrary power threat- 
ened to tear away the foundation of their happiness ; 
the guardian of their laws became their tyrant. Sim- 



xxvi INTRODUCTION 

pie in their statecraft no less than in their manners, 
they dared to appeal to ancient treaties and to remind 
the lord of both Indies of the rights of nature. A 
name decides the whole issue of things. In Madrid 
that was called rebelhon which in Brussels was simply 
styled a lawful remonstrance. The complaints of Bra- 
bant required a prudent mediator ; Philip II. sent an 
executioner. The signal for war was given. An un- 
paralleled tyranny assailed both property and life. 
The despairing citizens, to whom the choice of deaths 
was all that was left, chose the nobler one on the 
battle-field. A wealthy and luxurious nation loves 
peace, but becomes warlike as soon as it becomes poor. 
Then it ceases to tremble for a life which is deprived 
of everything that had made it desirable. In an instant 
the contagion of rebelhon seizes at once the most dis- 
tant provinces ; trade and commerce are at a standstill, 
the ships disappear from the harbours, the artisan 
abandons his workshop, the rustic his uncultivated 
fields. Thousands fled to distant lands, a thousand 
victims fell on the bloody field, and fresh thousands 
pressed on. Divine, indeed, must that doctrine be for 
which men could die so joyfully. All that was want- 
ing was the last finishing hand, the enlightened, enter- 
prising spirit, to seize on this great political crisis and 
to mould the offspring of chance into the ripe creation 
of wisdom. William the Silent, like a second Brutus, 
devoted himself to the great cause of liberty. Superior 
to all selfishness, he resigned honourable offices which 
entailed on him objectionable duties, and, magnani- 
mously divesting himself of all his princely dignities, 
he descended to a state of voluntary poverty, and be- 
came but a citizen of the world. The cause of justice 
was staked upon the hazardous game of battle ; but 
the newly raised levies of mercenaries and peaceful 
husbandmen were unable to withstand the terrible 
onset of an experienced force. Twice did the brave 



INTRODUCTION xxvii 

William lead his dispirited troops against the tyrant. 
Twice was he abandoned by them, but not by his 
courage. 

Phihp II. sent as many reinforcements as the dread- 
ful importunity of his \dceroy demanded. Fugitives, 
whom their country rejected, sought a new home on 
the ocean, and turned to the ships of their enemy to 
satisfy the cravings both of vengeance and of want. 
]N"aval heroes were now formed out of corsairs, and 
a marine collected out of piratical vessels ; out of 
morasses arose a republic. Seven provinces threw off 
the yoke at the same time, to form a new, youthful 
state, powerful by its waters and its union and despair. 
A soleron decree of the whole nation deposed the 
tyrant, and the Spanish name was erased from all its 
laws. 

For such acts no forgiveness remained ; the republic 
became formidable only because it was impossible for 
her to retrace her steps. But factions distracted her 
within ; without, her terrible element, the sea itself, 
leaguing with her oppressors, threatened her very 
infancy with a premature grave. She felt herself suc- 
cumb to the superior force of the enemy, and cast her- 
self a supphant before the most powerful thrones of 
Europe, begging them to accept a dominion which she 
herself could no longer protect. At last, but with 
difficulty — so despised at first was this state that 
even the rapacity of foreign monarchs spurned her 
opening bloom — a stranger deigned to accept their 
importunate offer of a dangerous crown. Xew hopes 
began to revive her sinking courage ; but in this new 
father of his country destiny gave her a traitor, and in 
the critical emergency, when the foe was in full force 
before her very gates, Charles of Anjou invaded the 
liberties which he had been called to protect. In 
the midst of the tempest, too, the assassin's hand tore 
the steersman from the helm, and with WiUiam of 



xxviii INTRODUCTION 

Orange the career of the infant republic was seemingly 
at an end, and all her guardian angels fled. But the 
ship continued to scud along before the storm, and 
the swelling canvas carried her safe without the pilot's 
help. 

Philip II. missed the fruits of a deed which cost him 
his royal honour, and perhaps, also, his self-respect. 
Liberty struggled on still with despotism in obstinate 
and dubious contest ; sanguinary battles were fought ; 
a brilliant array of heroes succeeded each other on 
the field of glory, and Flanders and Brabant were the 
schools which educated generals for the coming cen- 
tury. A long, devastating war laid waste the open 
country ; victor and vanquished alike waded through 
blood ; while the rising republic of the waters gave a 
welcome to fugitive industry, and out of the ruins of 
despotism erected the noble edifice of its own great- 
ness. For forty years lasted the war whose happy 
termination was not to bless the dying eye of Philip ; 
which destroyed one paradise in Europe to form a new 
one out of its shattered fragments; which destroyed 
the choicest flower of military youth, and while it 
enriched more than a quarter of the globe impover- 
ished the possessor of the golden Peru. This monarch, 
who could expend nine hundred tons of gold without 
oppressing his subjects, and by tyrannical measures 
extorted far more, heaped, moreover, on his exhausted 
people a debt of one hundred and forty millions of 
ducats. An implacable hatred of liberty swallowed up 
all these treasures, and consumed on the fruitless task 
the labour of a royal life. But the Keformation throve 
amidst the devastations of the sword, and over the 
blood of her citizens the banner of the new repubUc 
floated victorious. 

This improbable turn of affairs seems to border on a 
miracle; many circumstances, however, combined to 
break the power of Philip, and to favour the progress 



INTRODUCTION xxix 

of the infant state. Had the whole weight of his 
power fallen on the United Provinces there had been 
no hope for their religion or their liberty. His own 
ambition, by tempting him to divide his strength, came 
to the aid of their weakness. The expensive policy of 
maintaining traitors in every cabinet of Europe ; the 
support of the League in France; the revolt of the 
Moors in Granada ; the conquest of Portugal, and 
the magnificent fabric of the Escurial, drained at last 
his apparently inexhaustible treasury, and prevented his 
acting in the field with spirit and energy. The German 
and Italian troops, whom the hope of gain alone allured 
to his banner, mutinied when he could no longer pay 
them, and faithlessly abandoned their leaders in the 
decisive moment of action. These terrible instruments 
of oppression now turned their dangerous power against 
their employer, and wreaked their vindictive rage on 
the provinces which remained faithful to him. The 
unfortunate armament against England, on v/hich, like 
a desperate gamester, he had staked the whole strength 
of his kingdom, completed his ruin ; with the armada 
sank the wealth of the two Indies, and the flower of 
Spanish chivalry. 

But in the very same proportion that the Spanish 
power declined the repubhc rose in fresh vigour. The 
ravages which the fanaticism of the new rehgion, the 
tyranny of the Inquisition, the furious rapacity of 
the soldiery, and the miseries of a long war unbroken 
by any interval of peace, made in the provinces of 
Brabant, Flanders, and Hainault, at once the arsenals 
and the magazines of this expensive contest, naturally 
rendered it every year more difficult to support and 
recruit the royal armies. The Catholic Netherlands 
had already lost a million of citizens, and the trodden 
fields maintained their husbandmen no longer. Spain 
itself had but few more men to spare. That country, 
surprised by a sudden afiluence which brought idleness 



XXX INTRODUCTION 

with it, had lost much of its population, and could not 
long support the continual drafts of men which were 
required both for the New World and the Netherlands. 
Of these conscripts few ever saw their country again; 
and these few having left it as youths returned to it 
infirm and old. Gold, which had become more com- 
mon, made soldiers proportionately dearer ; the growing 
charm of effeminacy enhanced the price of the opposite 
virtues. Wholly different was the posture of affairs 
with the rebels. The thousands whom the cruelty 
of the viceroy expelled from the southern Netherlands, 
the Huguenots whom the wars of persecution drove 
from France, as well as every one whom constraint 
of conscience exiled from the other parts of Europe, all 
alike flocked to unite themselves with the Belgian 
insurgents. The whole Christian world was their 
recruiting ground. The fanaticism both of the perse- 
cutor and the persecuted worked in their behalf. The 
enthusiasm of a doctrine newly embraced, revenge, 
want, and hopeless misery drew to their standard 
adventurers from every part of Europe. All whom the 
new doctrine had won, all who had suffered, or had 
still cause of fear from despotism, linked their own 
fortunes with those of the new republic. Every injury 
inflicted by a tyrant gave a right of citizenship in 
Holland. Men pressed toward a country where liberty 
raised her spirit-stirring banner, where respect and 
security were ensured to a fugitive religion, and even 
revenge on the oppressor. If we consider the conflux 
in the present day of people to Holland, seeking by 
their entrance upon her territory to be reinvested 
in their rights as men, what must it have been at 
a time when the rest of Europe groaned under a heavy 
bondage, when Amsterdam was nearly the only free 
port for all opinions ? Many hundred families sought 
a refuge for their wealth in a land which the ocean and 
domestic concord powerfully combined to protect. The 



INTRODUCTION xxxi 

republican army maintained its full complement with- 
out the plough being stripped of hands to work it. 
Amid the clash of arms trade and industry flourished, 
and the peaceful citizen enjoyed in anticipation the 
fruits of Hberty which foreign blood was to purchase 
for them. At the very time when the republic of 
Holland was struggling for existence she extended her 
dominions beyond the ocean, and was quietly occupied 
in erecting her East Indian Empire. 

Moreover, Spain maintained this expensive war with 
dead, unfructifying gold, that never returned into the 
hand which gave it away, while it raised to her 
the price of every necessary. The treasuries of the 
republic were industry and commerce. Time lessened 
the one whilst it multiplied the other, and exactly 
in the same proportion that the resources of the 
Spanish government became exhausted by the long 
continuance of the war the republic began to reap 
a richer harvest. Its field was sown sparingly with the 
choice seed, which bore fruit, though late, yet a hun- 
dredfold ; but the tree from which Philip gathered 
fruit was a fallen trunk, which never again became 
verdant. 

Philip's adverse destiny decreed that all the treas- 
ures which he lavished for the oppression of the 
Provinces should contribute to enrich them. The con- 
tinual outlay of Spanish gold had diffused riches and 
luxury throughout Europe; but the increasing wants 
of Europe were supplied chiefly by the Netherlanders, 
who were masters of the commerce of the known 
world, and who by their dealings fixed the price of all 
merchandise. Even during the war Philip could not 
prohibit his own subjects from trading with the 
republic; nay, he could not even desire it. He him- 
self furnished the rebels with the means of defraying 
the expenses of their own defence ; for the very war 
which was to ruin them increased the sale of their 



xxxii INTRODUCTION 

goods. The enormous sums expended on his fleets and 
armies flowed for the most part into the exchequer of 
the repubhc, which was more or less connected with 
the commercial places of Flanders and Brabant. What- 
ever Philip attempted against the rebels operated indi- 
rectly to their advantage. 

The sluggish progTess of this war did the king 
as much injury as it benefited the rebels. His army 
was composed for the most part of the remains of 
those victorious troops which had gathered their 
laurels under Charles V. Old and long services 
entitled them to repose; many of them, whom the 
war had enriched, impatiently longed for their homes, 
where they might end in ease a life of hardship. 
Their former zeal, their heroic spirit, and their disci- 
phne relaxed in the same proportion as they thought 
they had fully satisfied their honour and their duty, 
and as they began to reap at last the reward of so 
many battles. Besides, the troops which had been 
accustomed by their irresistible impetuosity to van- 
quish all opponents were necessarily wearied out by 
a war which was carried on not so much against 
men as against the elements; which exercised their 
patience more than it gTatified their love of glory ; and 
where there was less of danger than of difficulty and 
want to contend with. Neither personal courage nor 
long military experience was of avail in a country 
whose peculiar features gave the most dastardly the 
advantage. Lastly, a single discomfiture on foreign 
ground did them more injury than any victories 
gained over an enemy at home could profit them. 
With the rebels the case was exactly the reverse. In 
so protracted a war, in which no decisive battle took 
place, the weaker party must naturally learn at last the 
art of defence from the stronger ; sHght defeats accus- 
tomed him to danger; slight victories animated his 
confidence. 



INTRODUCTION xxxiii 

At the beginning of the war the republican army 
scarcely dared to show itself in the field ; the long 
continuance of the struggle practised and hardened it. 
As the royal armies grew wearied of victory, the con- 
fidence of the rebels rose with their improved disci- 
pline and experience. At last, at the end of half a 
century, master and pupil separated, unsubdued, and 
equal in the fight. 

Again, throughout the war the rebels acted with 
more concord and unanimity than the royahsts. Before 
the former had lost their first leader the government 
of the Netherlands had passed through as many as five 
hands. The Duchess of Parma's indecision soon im- 
parted itself to the cabinet of Madrid, which in a short 
time tried in succession almost every system of policy. 
Duke Alva's inflexible sternness, the mildness of his 
successor Eequescens, Don John of Austria's insidious 
cunning, and the active and imperious mind of the 
Prince of Parma gave as many opposite directions to 
the war, while the plan of rebellion remained the same 
in a single head, who, as he saw it clearly, pursued it 
with vigour. The king's greatest misfortune was that 
right principles of action generally missed the right 
moment of application. In the commencement of the 
troubles, when the advantage was as yet clearly on 
the king's side, when prompt resolution and manly 
firmness might have crushed the rebellion in the cradle, 
the reins of government were allowed to hang loose 
in the hands of a woman. After the outbreak had 
come to an open revolt, and when the strength of the 
factious and the power of the king stood more equally 
balanced, and when a skilful, flexible prudence could 
alone have averted the impending civil war, the gov- 
ernment devolved on a man who was eminently 
deficient in this necessary qualification. So watchful 
an observer as William the Silent failed not to im- 
prove every advantage which the faulty policy of 



xxxiv INTRODUCTION 

his adversary presented, and with quiet silent industry- 
he slowly but surely pushed on the great enterprise to 
its accomplishment. 

But why did not Philip II. himself appear in the 
Netherlands ? Why did he prefer to employ every 
other means, however improbable, rather than make 
trial of the only remedy which could ensure success ? 
To curb the overgrown power and insolence of the 
nobility there was no expedient more natural than the 
presence of their master. Before royalty itself all sec- 
ondary dignities must necessarily have sunk in the 
shade, all other splendour be dimmed. Instead of 
the truth being left to flow slowly and obscurely 
through impure channels to the distant throne, so that 
procrastinated measures of redress gave time to ripen 
ebullitions of the moment into acts of deliberation, his 
own penetrating glance would at once have been able 
to separate truth from error ; and cold policy alone, not 
to speak of his humanity, would have saved the land a 
million citizens. The nearer to their source the more 
weighty would his edicts have been ; the thicker they 
fell on their objects the weaker and the more dispirited 
would have become the efforts of the rebels. It costs 
infinitely more to do an evil to an enemy in his pres- 
ence than in his absence. At first the rebelHon 
appeared to tremble at its own name, and long shel- 
tered itself under the ingenious pretext of defending 
the cause of its sovereign against the arbitrary assump- 
tions of his own viceroy. Philip's appearance in Brus- 
sels would have put an end at once to this juggling. 
In that case, the rebels would have been compelled to 
act up to their pretence, or to cast aside the mask, and 
so, by appearing in their true shape, condemn them- 
selves. And what a rehef for the Netherlands if the 
king's presence had only spared them those evils 
which were inflicted upon them without his knowl- 
edge, and contrary to his will. What gain, too, even 



INTRODUCTION xxxv 

if it had only enabled him to watch over the expen- 
diture of the vast sums which, illegally raised on the 
plea of meeting the exigencies of the war, disappeared 
in the plundering hands of his deputies. 

What the latter were compelled to extort by the 
unnatural expedient of terror, the nation would have 
been disposed to grant to the sovereign majesty. That 
which made his ministers detested would have rendered 
the monarch feared ; for the abuse of hereditary power 
is less painfully oppressive than the abuse of delegated 
authority. His presence would have saved his ex- 
chequer thousands had he been nothing more than an 
economical despot ; and even had he been less, the awe 
of his person would have preserved a territory which 
was lost through hatred and contempt for his instru- 
ments. 

In the same manner, as the oppression of the people 
of the Netherlands excited the sympathy of all who 
valued thcK own rights, it might have been expected 
that their disobedience and defection would have been 
a call to all princes to maintain their own prerogatives 
in the case of their neighbours. But jealousy of Spain 
got the better of pohtical sympathies, and the first 
powers of Europe aiTanged themselves more or less 
openly on the side of freedom. 

Although bound to the house of Spain by the ties of 
relationship, the Emperor Maximilian II. gave it just 
cause for its charge against him of secretly favoui'ing 
the rebels. By the offer of his mediation he implicitly 
acknowledged the partial justice of their complaints, 
and thereby encouraged them to a resolute perseverance 
in theii' demands. Under an emperor sincerely de- 
voted to the interests of the Spanish house, William 
of Orange could scarcely have drawn so many troops 
and so much money fi'om Germany. France, without 
openly and formally breaking the peace, placed a prince 
of the blood at the head of the Xetherlandish rebels; 



xxxvi INTRODUCTION 

and it was with French gold and French troops that 
the operations of the latter were chiefly conducted. 
Ehzabeth of England, too, did but exercise a just retali- 
ation and revenge in protecting the rebels against their 
legitimate sovereign ; and although her meagre and 
sparing aid availed no further than to ward off utter 
ruin from the repubhc, still even this was infinitely 
valuable at a moment when nothing but hope could 
have supported their exhausted courage. With both 
these powers Philip at the time was at peace, but both 
betrayed him. Between the weak and the strong 
honesty often ceases to appear a virtue ; the dehcate 
ties which bind equals are seldom observed toward him 
whom all men fear. Philip had banished truth from 
political intercourse ; he himself had dissolved all 
morality between kings, and had made artifice the 
divinity of cabinets. Without once enjoying the ad- 
vantages of his preponderating greatness, he had, 
throughout life, to contend with the jealousy which 
it awakened in others. Europe made him atone for 
the possible abuses of a power of which in fact he 
never had the full possession. 

If against the disparity between the two combatants, 
which, at first sight, is so astounding, we weigh all the 
incidental circumstances which were adverse to Spain, 
but favourable to the Netherlands, that which is super- 
natural in this event will disappear, while that which 
is extraordinary will still remain — and a just stand- 
ard will be furnished by which to estimate the real 
merit of these repubhcans in working out their free- 
dom. It must not, however, be thought that so 
accurate a calculation of the opposing forces could 
have preceded the undertaking itself, or that, on enter- 
ing this unknown sea, they already knew the shore on 
which they would ultimately be landed. The work did 
not present itself to the mind of its originator in the 
exact form which it assumed when completed, any 



INTRODUCTION xxxvu 

more than the mind of Luther foresaw the eternal 
separation of creeds when he began to oppose the sale 
of indulgrences. What a difference between the modest 
procession of those suitors in Brussels, who prayed for 
a more humane treatment as a favour, and the dreaded 
majesty of a free state, which treated with kings as 
equals, and in less than a century disposed of the 
throne of its former tyrant. The unseen hand of fate 
gave to the discharged an^ow a higher flight, and quite 
a different direction from that which it first received 
from the bowstring. In the womb of happy Brabant 
that liberty had its birth which, torn from its mother 
in its earhest infancy, was to gladden the so despised 
Holland. But the enterprise must not be less thought 
of because its issue differed from the first design. Man 
works up, smooths, and fashions the rough stone which 
the times bring to him ; the moment and the instant 
may belong to him, but accident develops the history 
of the world. If the passions which cooperated actively 
in bringing about this event were only not unworthy of 
the great work to which they were unconsciously sub- 
servient — if only the powers which aided in its accom- 
phshment were intrinsically noble, if only the single 
actions out of whose concatenation it wonderfully arose 
were beautiful and great, then is the event grand, inter- 
esting, and fruitful for us, and we are at hberty to won- 
der at the bold offspring of chance, or rather ofler up 
our admiration to a higjher inteUicrence. 

The history of the world, hke the laws of nature, is 
consistent with itself, and simple as the soul of man. 
Like conditions produce like phenomena. On the same 
soil where now the Xetherlanders were to resist their 
Spanish tyrants, their forefathers, the Batavi and Belg^e, 
fifteen centuries before, combated against their Eoman 
oppressors. Like the former, submitting reluctantly 
to a haughty master, and misgoverned by rapacious 
satraps, they broke off their chain with Like resolution. 



xxxviii INTRODUCTION 

and tried their fortune in a similar unequal combat. 
The same pride of conquest, the same national gran- 
deur, marked the Spaniard of the sixteenth century 
and the Koman of the first ; the same valour and dis- 
cipline distinguished the armies of both, their battle- 
array inspired the same terror. There as here we see 
stratagem in combat with superior force, and firmness, 
strengthened by unanimity, wearying out a mighty 
power weakened by division ; then as now private 
hatred armed a whole nation ; a single man born for 
his times revealed to his fellow slaves the dangerous 
secret of their power, and brought their mute gTief 
to a bloody announcement. " Confess, Batavians," 
cries Claudius Civilis to his countrymen in the sacred 
grove, " we are no longer treated, as formerly, by 
these Eomans as allies, but rather as slaves. We are 
handed over to their prefects and centurions, who, 
when satiated with our plunder and with our blood, 
make way for others, who, under different names, renew 
the same outrages. If even at last Rome deigns to 
send us a legate, he oppresses us with an ostentatious 
and costly retinue, and with still more intolerable 
pride. The levies are again at hand which tear for 
ever children from their parents, brothers from broth- 
ers. Now, Batavians, is our time. Never did Rome 
lie so prostrate as now. Let not their names of legions 
terrify you. There is nothing in their camps but old 
men and plunder. Our infantry and horsemen are 
strong; Germany is alhed to us by blood, and Gaul 
is ready to throw off its yoke. Let Syria serve them, 
and Asia and the East, who are used to bow before 
kings ; many still live who were born among us before 
tribute was paid to the Romans. The gods are ever 
with the brave." Solemn religious rites hallowed this 
conspiracy, like the League of the Gueux ; like that, 
it craftily wrapped itself in the veil of submissiveness, 
in the majesty of a great name. The cohorts of Civilis 



INTRODUCTION xxxix 

swear allegiance on the Ehine to Vespasian in Syria, 
as the League did to Philip II. The same arena fur- 
nished the same plan of defence, the same refuge to 
despair. Both confided their wavering fortunes to a 
friendly element ; in the same distress Civilis preserves 
his island, as fifteen centuries after him William of 
Orange did the town of Leyden — through an artificial 
inundation. The valour of the Batavi disclosed the 
impotency of the world's ruler, as the noble courage 
of their descendants revealed to the whole of Europe 
the decay of Spanish greatness. The same fecundity 
of genius in the generals of both times gave to the 
war a similarly obstinate continuance, and nearly as 
doubtful an issue; one difference, nevertheless, dis- 
tinguishes them : the Eomans and Batavians fought 
humanely, for they did not fight for religion. 



History of the Revolt of the 
United Netherlands 



BOOK I. 



EAELIER HISTORY OF THE KETHEELAXDS UP TO THE 
SIXTEENTH CEXTURY. 

Before we consider the immediate history of this 
great revolution, it will be advisable to go a few steps 
back into the ancient records of the country, and to 
trace the origin of that constitution which we find it 
possessed of at the time of this remarkable change. 

The first appearance of this people in the history 
of the world is the moment of its fall ; their conquerors 
first gave them a political existence. The extensive 
region which is bounded by Germany on the east, on 
the south by France, on the north and northwest by 
the Xorth Sea, and which we comprehend under the 
general name of the Netherlands, was, at the time 
when the Eomans invaded G-aul, divided amongst 
three principal nations, all originally of German de- 
scent, German institutions, and German spirit. The 
Ehine formed its boundaries. On the left of the river 
dwelt the Belg^e, on its right the Frisii, and the Batavi 
on the island which its two arms then formed with 
the ocean. All these several nations were sooner 



2 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

or later reduced into subjection by the Romans, 
but the conquerors themselves give us the most 
glorious testimony to their valour. The Belgse, writes 
Csesar, were the only people amongst the Gauls who 
repulsed the invasion of the Teutones and Cimbri. 
The Batavi, Tacitus tells us, surpassed all the tribes 
on the Rhine in bravery. This fierce nation paid its 
tribute in soldiers, and was reserved by its conquerors, 
like arrow and sword, only for battle. The Romans 
themselves acknowledged the Batavian horsemen to 
be their best cavalry. Like the Swiss at this day, 
they formed for a long time the body-guard of the 
Roman Emperor; their wild courage terrified the 
Dacians, as they saw them, in full armour, swimming 
across the Danube. The Batavi accompanied Agricola 
in his expedition against Britain, and helped him to 
conquer that island. The Frisians were, of all, the 
last subdued, and the first to regain their liberty. The 
morasses among which they dwelt attracted the con- 
querors later, and enhanced the price of conquest. 
The Roman Drusus, who made war in these regions, 
had a canal cut from the Rhine into the Flevo, the 
present Zuyder Zee, through which the Roman fleet 
penetrated into the North Sea, and from thence, en- 
tering the mouths of the Ems and the Weser, found 
an easy passage into the interior of Germany. 

Through four centuries we find Batavian troops in 
the Roman armies, but after the time of Honorius 
their name disappears from history. Presently we 
discover their island overrun by the Franks, who 
again lost themselves in the adjoining country of 
Belgium, The Frisians threw off' the yoke of their 
distant and powerless rulers, and again appeared as 
a free, and even a conquering people, who governed 
themselves by their own customs and a remnant of 
Roman laws, and extended their limits beyond the 
left bank of the Rhine. Of all the provinces of the 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 3 

!N'etherland,s, Friesland especially had suffered the least 
from the irruptions of strange tribes and foreign cus- 
toms, and for centuries retained traces of its original 
institutions, of its national spirit and manners, which 
have not, even at the present day, entirely disap- 
peared. 

The epoch of the immigration of nations destroyed 
the original form of most of these tribes ; other mixed 
races arose in their place, with other constitutions. In 
the general irruption the towns and encampments of 
the Eomans disappeared, and with them the memorials 
of their wise government, which they had employed 
the natives to execute. The neglected dikes once 
more yielded to the violence of the streams and to 
the encroachments of the ocean. Those wonders of 
labour, and creations of human skill, the canals, dried 
up, the rivers changed their course, the continent and 
the sea confounded their olden limits, and the nature 
of the soil changed with its inhabitants. So, too, the 
connection of the two eras seems effaced, and with 
a new race a new history commences. 

The monarchy of the Franks, which arose out of 
the ruins of Koman Gaul, had, in the sixth and seventh 
centuries, seized all the provinces of the Netherlands, 
and planted there the Christian faith. After an obsti- 
nate war Charles Martel subdued to the French crown 
Friesland, the last of all the free provinces, and by 
his victories paved a way for the gospel. Charlemagne 
united all these countries, and formed of them one 
division of the mighty empire which he had con- 
structed out of Germany, France, and Lombardy. As 
under his descendants this vast dominion was again 
torn into fragments, so the Netherlands became at 
times German, at others French, or then again Lothe- 
ringian Provinces ; and at last we find them under both 
the names of Friesland and Lower Lotheringia. 

With the Franks the feudal system, the offspring of 



4 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

the North, also came into these lauds, and here, too, 
as in all other countries, it degenerated. The more 
powerful vassals gradually made themselves inde- 
pendent of the crown, and the royal governors usurped 
the countries they were appointed to govern. But the 
rebelhous vassals could not maintain their usurpa- 
tions without the aid of their own dependents, whose 
assistance they were compelled to purchase by new 
concessions. At the same time the Church became 
powerful through pious usurpations and donations, and 
its abbey lands and episcopal sees acquired an inde- 
pendent existence. Thus were the Netherlands in the 
tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries spht 
up into several small sovereignties, whose possessors 
did homage at one time to the German Emperor, at 
another to the kings of France. By purchase, mar- 
riages, legacies, and also by conquest, several of these 
provinces were often united under one suzerain, and 
thus in the fifteenth century we see the house of Bur- 
gundy in possession of the chief part of the Nether- 
lands. With more or less right Phihp the Good, Duke 
of Burgundy, had united as many as eleven provinces 
under his authority, and to these his son, Charles the 
Bold, added two others, acquired by force of arms. 
Thus imperceptibly a new state arose in Earope, which 
wanted nothing but the name to be the most flour- 
ishing kingdom in this quarter of the globe. These 
extensive possessions made the Dukes of Burgundy 
formidable neighbours to France, and tempted the rest- 
less spirit of Charles the Bold to devise a scheme of 
conquest, embracing the whole line of country from 
the Zuyder Zee and the mouth of the Khine down to 
Alsace. The almost inexhaustible resources of this 
prince justify in some measure this bold project. A 
formidable army threatened to carry it into execution. 
Already Switzerland trembled for her liberty; but 
deceitful fortune abandoned him in three terrible 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 5 

battles, and the infatuated hero was lost in the mSlee 
of the living and the dead.^ 

The sole heiress of Charles the Bold, Maria, at once 
the richest princess and the unhappy Helen of that 
time, whose wooing brought misery on her inheritance, 
was now the centre of attraction to the whole known 
world. Among her suitors appeared two great princes. 
King Louis XI. of France, for his son, the young 
Dauphin, and Maximilian of Austria, son of the 
Emperor Frederic III. The successful suitor was to 
become the most powerful prince in Europe ; and now, 
for the first time, this quarter of the globe began to 
fear for its balance of power. Louis, the more power- 
ful of the two, was ready to back his suit by force of 
arms ; but the people of the Netherlands, who disposed 
of the hand of their princess, passed by this dreaded 
neighbour, and decided in favour of MaximiHan, whose 
more remote territories and more limited power 
seemed less to threaten the liberty of their country. 
A deceitful, unfortunate policy, which, through a 
strange dispensation of Heaven, only accelerated the 
melancholy fate which it was intended to prevent. 

To Philip the Fair, the son of Maria and Maxi- 
milian, a Spanish bride brought as her portion that 
extensive kingdom which Ferdinand and Isabella had 
recently founded ; and Charles of Austria, his son, was 
born lord of the kingdoms of Spain, of the two Sicilies, 

1 A page who had seen him fall a few days after the battle con- 
ducted the victors to the spot, and saved his remains from an igno- 
minious oblivion. His body was dragged from out of a pool, in 
which it was fast frozen, naked, and so disfigured with wounds 
that with great difficulty he was recognised, by the well-known 
deficiency of some of his teeth, and by remarkably long finger- 
nails. But that, notwithstanding the marks, there were still 
incredulous people who doubted his death, and looked for his 
reappearance, is proved by the missive in which Louis XL called 
upon the Burgundian States to return to their allegiance to the 
Crown of France. "Lf," the passage runs, "Duke Charles 
should still be living, you shall be released from your oath to 
me." — Comines, t. Hi., Preuvesdes Memoires, 495, 497. 



6 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

of the New World, and of the Netherlands. In the 
latter country the commonalty emancipated them- 
selves much earlier than in other feudal states, and 
quickly attained to an independent political existence. 
The favourable situation of the country on the North 
Sea and on great navigable rivers early awakened the 
spirit of commerce, which rapidly peopled the towns, 
encouraged industry and the arts, attracted foreigners, 
and diffused prosperity and affluence among them. 
However contemptuously the warlike policy of those 
times looked down upon every peaceful and useful 
occupation, the rulers of the country could not fail 
altogether to perceive the essential advantages they 
derived from such pursuits. The increasing popula- 
tion of their territories, the different imposts which 
they extorted from natives and foreigners under the 
various titles of tolls, customs, highway rates, escort 
money, bridge tolls, market fees, escheats, and so forth, 
were too valuable considerations to allow them to 
remain indifferent to the sources from which they 
were derived. Their own rapacity made them pro- 
moters of trade, and, as often happens, barbarism itself 
rudely nursed it, until at last a healthier policy as- 
sumed its place. In the course of time they invited 
the Lombard merchants to settle among them, and ac- 
corded to the towns some valuable privileges and an 
independent jurisdiction, by which the latter acquired 
uncommon extraordinary credit and influence. The 
numerous wars which the counts and dukes carried 
on with one another, or with their neighbours, made 
them in some measure dependent on the good-will 
of the towns, who by their wealth obtained weight 
and consideration, and for the subsidies which they 
afforded failed not to extort important privileges in 
return. These privileges of the commonalties in- 
creased as the Crusades, with their expensive equip- 
ment, augmented the necessities of the nobles ; as a 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 7 

new road to Europe was opened for the productions of 
the East, and as wide-spreading luxury created new 
wants to their princes. Thus as early as the eleventh 
and twelfth centuries we find in these lands a mixed 
form of government, in which the prerogative of the 
sovereign is greatly limited by the privileges of the 
states ; that is to say, of the nobihty, the clergy, and 
the municipalities. These, under the name of States, 
assembled as often as the wants of the province re- 
quired it. Without their consent no new laws were 
valid, no war could be carried on, and no taxes levied, 
no change made in the coinage, and no foreigner ad- 
mitted to any office of government. All the provinces 
enjoyed these privileges in common ; others were pecul- 
iar to the various districts. The supreme government 
was hereditary, but the son did not enter on the rights 
of his father before he had solemnly sworn to main- 
tain the existing constitution. 

Necessity is the first lawgiver ; all the wants which 
had to be met by this constitution were originally of a 
commercial nature. Thus the whole constitution was 
founded on commerce, and the laws of the nation were 
adapted to its pursuits. The last clause, which ex- 
cluded foreigners from all offices of trust, was a natural 
consequence of the preceding articles. So complicated 
and artificial a relation between the sovereign and his 
people, which in many provinces was further modified 
according to the peculiar wants of each, and frequently 
of some single city, required for its maintenance the 
liveliest zeal for the liberties of the country, combined 
with an intimate acquaintance with them. From a 
foreigner neither could well be expected. This law, 
besides, was enforced reciprocally in each particular 
province ; so that in Brabant no Fleming, in Zealand 
no Hollander, could hold office ; and it continued in 
force even after all these provinces were united under 
one government. 



8 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

Above all others, Brabant enjoyed the highest de- 
gree of freedom. Its privileges were esteemed so val- 
uable that many mothers from the adjacent provinces 
removed thither about the time of their accouchement, 
in order to entitle their children to participate, by birth, 
in all the immunities of that favoured country ; just as, 
says Strada, one improves the plants of a rude climate 
by removing them to the soil of a milder. 

After the house of Burgundy had united several 
provinces under its dominion, the separate provincial 
assembhes, which, up to that time, had been independ- 
ent tribunals, were made subject to a supreme court 
at Mahnes, which incorporated the various judicatures 
into one body, and decided in the last resort all civil 
and criminal appeals. The separate independence of 
the provinces was thus abohshed, and the supreme 
power vested in the senate at Malines. 

After the death of Charles the Bold the states did 
not neglect to avail themselves of the embarrassment of 
their duchess, who, threatened by France, was conse- 
quently in their power. Holland and Zealand com- 
pelled her to sign a great charter, which secured to 
them the most important sovereign rights. The people 
of Ghent carried their insolence to such a pitch that 
they arbitrarily dragged the favourites of Maria, who 
had the misfortune to displease them, before their own 
tribunals, and beheaded them before the eyes of that 
princess. During the short government of the Duchess 
Maria, from her father's death to her marriage, the 
commons obtained powers which few free states en- 
joyed. After her death her husband, MaximiHan, 
illegally assumed the government as guardian of his 
son. Offended by this invasion of their rights, the 
estates refused to acknowledge his authority, and could 
only be brought to receive him as a viceroy for a 
stated period, and under conditions ratified by oath. 

Maximilian, after he became Koman Emperor, fan- 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 9 

cied that lie might safely venture to violate the con- 
stitution. He imposed extraordinary taxes on the 
provinces, gave official appointments to Burgundians 
and Germans, and introduced foreign troops into the 
provinces. But the jealousy of these repubhcans kept 
pace with the power of their regent. As he entered 
Bruges with a large retinue of foreigners, the people 
flew to arms, made themselves masters of his person, 
and placed him in confinement in the castle. In spite 
of the intercession of the Imperial and Eoman courts, 
he did not again obtain his freedom until security had 
been given to the people on all the disputed points. 

The security of life and property arising from mild 
laws, and an equal administration of justice, had en- 
couraged activity and industry. In continual contest 
with the ocean and rapid rivers which poured their 
violence on the neighbouring lowlands, and whose 
force it was requisite to break by embankments and 
canals, this people had early learned to observe the nat- 
ural objects around them ; by industry and persever- 
ance to defy an element of superior power ; and like 
the Egyptian, instructed by his Nile, to exercise their 
inventive genius and acuteness in self-defence. The 
natural fertihty of their soil, which favoured agricul- 
ture and the breeding of cattle, tended at the same 
time to increase the population. Their happy position 
on the sea and the great navigable rivers of Germany 
and France, many of which debouched on their coasts ; 
the numerous artificial canals, which intersected the 
land in all directions, imparted life to navigation ; and 
the facility of internal communication between the 
provinces, soon created and fostered a commercial 
spirit among these people. 

The neighbouring coasts, Denmark and Britain, were 
the first visited by their vessels. The English wool 
w^hich they brought back employed thousands of indus- 
trious hands in Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp ; and as early 



lo REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

as the middle of the twelfth century cloths of Flanders 
were extensively worn in France and Germany. In the 
eleventh century we find ships of Friesland in the Belt, 
and even in the Levant. This enterprising people ven- 
tured, without a compass, to steer under the North Pole 
around to the most northerly point of Eussia. From 
the Wendish towns the Netherlands received a share 
in the Levant trade, which, at that time, still passed 
from the Black Sea through the Eussian territories to 
the Baltic. When, in the thirteenth century, this trade 
began ' to decline, the Crusades having opened a new 
road through the Mediterranean for Indian merchandise, 
and after the Itahan towns had usurped this lucrative 
branch of commerce, and the great Hanseatic League 
had been formed in Germany, the Netherlands became 
the most important emporium between the north and 
south. As yet the use of the compass was not general, 
and the merchantmen sailed slowly and laboriously 
along the coasts. The ports on the Baltic were, dur- 
ing the winter months, for the most part frozen and 
inaccessible. Ships, therefore, which could not well 
accomplish within the year the long voyage from the 
Mediterranean to the Belt, gladly availed themselves 
of harbours which lay half-way between the two. 
With an immense continent behind them with which 
navigable streams kept up their communication, and 
toward the west and north open to the ocean by 
commodious harbours, this country appeared to be 
expressly formed for a place of resort for different 
nations, and for a centre of commerce. The principal 
towns of the Netherlands were established marts. 
Portuguese, Spaniards, Itahans, French, Britons, Ger- 
mans, Danes, and Swedes thronged to them with the 
produce of every country in the world. Competition 
ensured cheapness ; industry was stimulated as it found 
a ready market for its productions. With the neces- 
sary exchange of money arose the commerce in bills, 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS il 

which opened a new and fruitful source of wealth. 
The princes of the country, acquainted at last with 
their true interest, encouraged the merchant hy im- 
portant immunities, and neglected not to protect 
their commerce hy advantageous treaties with foreign 
powers. "VVTien, in the fifteenth century, several prov- 
inces were united under one rule, they discontinued 
their private wars, which had proved so injurious, and 
their separate interests were now more intimately con- 
nected by a common government. Their commerce 
and affluence prospered in the lap of a long peace, 
which the formidable power of their princes extorted 
from the neighbouring monarchs. The Burgundian 
flag was feared in every sea, the dignity of their sov- 
ereign gave support to their undertakings, and the enter- 
prise of a private individual became the affair of a 
powerful state. Such vigorous protection soon placed 
them in a position even to renounce the Hanseatic 
League, and to pursue this daring enemy through every 
sea. The Hanseatic merchants, against whom the 
coasts of Spain were closed, were compelled at last, 
however reluctantly, to visit the Flemish fairs, and 
purchase their Spanish goods in the markets of the 
Netherlands. 

Bruges, in Flanders, was, in the fourteenth and fif- 
teenth centuries, the central point of the whole com- 
merce of Europe, and the great market of all nations. 
In the year 1468 a hundred and fifty merchant vessels 
were counted entering the harbour of Sluys at one 
time. Besides the rich factories of the Hanseatic 
League, there were here fifteen trading companies, with 
their counting-houses, and many factories and mer- 
chants' famihes from every European country. Here 
was established the market of all northern products for 
the south, and of all southern and Levantine products 
for the north. These passed through the Sound, and 
up the Ehine, in Hanseatic vessels to L^pper Germany, 



12 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

or were transported by land-carriage to Brunswick and 
Lunebnrg. 

As in the common course of human affairs, so here 
also a licentious luxury followed prosperity. The 
seductive example of Philip the Good could not but 
accelerate its approach. The court of the Burgundian 
dukes was the most voluptuous and magnificent in 
Europe, Italy itself not excepted. The costly dress of 
the higher classes, which afterward served as patterns 
to the Spaniards, and eventually, with other Burgun- 
dian customs, passed over to the court of Austria, soon 
descended to the lower orders, and the meanest citizen 
nursed his person in velvet and silk.^ 

Comines, an author who travelled through the Nether- 
lands about the middle of the fifteenth century, tells us 
that pride had already attended their prosperity. The 
pomp and vanity of dress was carried by both sexes 
to extravagance. The luxury of the table had never 
reached so great a height among any other people. 
The immoral assemblage of both sexes at bathing- 
places, and such other places of reunion for pleasure 
and enjoyment, had banished all shame — and we are 
not here speaking of the usual luxuriousness of the 
higher ranks ; the females of the common class aban- 

1 Philip the Good was too profuse a priDce to amass treasures ; 
nevertheless Charles the Bold found accumulated among his effects 
a greater store of table services, jewels, carpets, and linen than 
three rich princedoms of that time together possessed, and over 
and above all a treasure of three hundred thousand dollars in 
ready money. The riches of this prince, and of the Burgundian 
people, lay exposed on the battle-fields of Granson, Murten, and 
Nancy. Here a Swiss soldier drew from the finger of Charles the 
Bold that celebrated diamond which was long esteemed the largest 
in Europe, which even now sparkles in the crown of France as the 
second in size, but which the unwitting finder sold for a florin. 
The Swiss exchanged the silver they found for tin, and the gold 
for copper, and tore into pieces the costly tents of cloth of gold. 
The value of the spoil of silver, gold, and jewels which was taken 
has been estimated at three millions. Charles and his army had 
advanced to the combat, not like foes who purpose battle, but like 
conquerors who adorn themselves after victory. 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 13 

doned themselves to such extravagances without limit 
or measure. 

But how much more cheering to the philanthropist 
is this extravagance than the miserable frugahty of 
want, and the barbarous virtues of ignorance, which at 
that time oppressed nearly the whole of Europe ! The 
Burgundian era shines pleasingly forth from those dark 
ages, like a lovely spring day amid the showers of 
February. But this flourishing condition tempted the 
Flemish towns at last to theii- ruin ; Ghent and Bruges, 
giddy with hberty and success, declared war against 
Philip the Good, the ruler of eleven provinces, which 
ended as unfortunately as it was presumptuously com- 
menced. Ghent alone lost many thousand men in an en- 
gagement near Ha\Te, and was compelled to appease the 
wrath of the victor by a contribution of four hundred 
thousand gold florins. All the municipal functionaries, 
and two thousand of the principal citizens, went, stripped 
to their shirts, barefooted, and with heads uncovered, a 
mile out of the town to meet the duke, and on their 
knees supplicated for pardon. On this occasion they 
were deprived of several valuable privileges, an irrepa- 
rable loss for their future commerce. In the year 1482 
they engaged in a war, with no better success, against 
Maximilian of Austria, with a view to deprive him of 
the guardianship of his son, which, in contravention 
of his charter, he had unjustly assumed. In 1487 the 
town of Bruges placed the archduke himself in confine- 
ment, and put some of his most eminent ministers to 
death. To avenge his son the Emperor Frederic III. 
entered their territory with an army, and, blockading 
for ten years the harbour of Sluys, put a stop to their 
entire trade. On this occasion Amsterdam and Ant- 
werp, whose jealousy had long been roused by the 
flourishing condition of the Flemish towms, lent him 
the most important assistance. The Italians began to 
bring theii' own silk-stuffs to Antwerp for sale, and the 



14 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

Flemish cloth-workers likewise, who had settled in 
England, sent their goods thither ; and thus the town 
of Bruges lost two important branches of trade. The 
Hanseatic League had long been offended at their over- 
weening pride ; and it now left them and removed its 
factory to Antwerp. In the year 1516 all the foreign 
merchants left the town except only a few Spaniards ; 
but its prosperity faded as slowly as it had bloomed. 

Antwerp received, in the sixteenth century, the trade 
which the luxuriousness of the Flemish towns had 
banished; and under the government of Charles V. 
Antwerp was the most stirring and splendid city in the 
Christian world. A stream like the Scheldt, whose 
broad mouth, in the immediate vicinity, shared with 
the N'orth Sea the ebb and flow of the tide, and could 
carry vessels of the largest tonnage under the walls of 
Antwerp, made it the natural resort for all vessels 
which visited that coast. Its free fairs attracted men 
of business from all countries.^ The industry of the 
nation had, in the beginning of this century, reached 
its greatest height. The culture of grain, flax, the 
breeding of cattle, the chase, and fisheries, enriched 
the peasant ; arts, manufactures, and trade gave wealth 
to the burghers. Flemish and Brabantine manufac- 
tures were long to be seen in Arabia, Persia, and India. 
Their ships covered the ocean, and in the Black Sea 
contended with the Genoese for supremacy. It was 
the distinctive characteristic of the seaman of the 
Netherlands that he made sail at all seasons of the year, 
and never laid up for the winter. 

When the new route by the Cape of Good Hope was 
discovered, and the East India trade of Portugal under- 
mined that of the Levant, the Netherlands did not feel 
the blow which was inflicted on the Italian republics. 
The Portuguese established their mart in Brabant, and 

1 Two such faii-s lasted forty days, and all the goods sold there 
were duty free. 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 15 

the spices of Calicut were displayed for sale in the mar- 
kets of Antwerp. Hither poured the West Indian 
merchandise, with which the indolent pride of Spain 
repaid the industry of the Netherlands. The East In- 
dian market attracted the most celebrated commercial 
houses from Florence, Lucca, and Genoa ; and the 
Fuggers and Welsers from Augsburg. Here the Hansa 
towns brought the wares of the north, and here the 
English company had a factory. Here art and nature 
seemed to expose to view all their riches ; it was a 
splendid exhibition of the works of the Creator and of 
the creature. 

Their renown soon diffused itself through the world. 
Even a company of Turkish merchants, toward the end 
of this century, solicited permission to settle here, and 
to supply the products of the East by way of Greece. 
With the trade in goods they held also the exchange of 
money. Their bills passed current in the farthest parts 
of the globe. Antwerp, it is asserted, then transacted 
more extensive and more important business in a single 
month than Venice, at its most flourishing period, in 
two whole years. 

In the year 1491 the Hanseatic League held its 
solemn meetings in this town, which had formerly 
assembled in Lubeck alone. In 1531 the exchange 
was erected, at that time the most splendid in all 
Europe, and which fulfilled its proud inscription. The 
town now reckoned one hundred thousand inhabitants. 
The tide of human beings, which incessantly poured 
into it, exceeds all belief. Between two hundred and 
two hundred and fifty ships were often seen loading at 
one time in its harbour ; no day passed on which the 
boats entering inwards and outwards did not amount 
to more than five hundred ; on market days the num- 
ber amounted to eight or nine hundred. Daily more 
than two hundred carriages drove through its gates ; 
above two thousand loaded wagons arrived every week 



1 6 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

from Germany, France, and Lorraine, without reckon- 
ing the farmers' carts and corn-vans, which were seldom 
less than ten thousand in number. Thirty thousand 
hands were employed by the English company alone. 
The market dues, tolls, and excise brought millions to 
the government annually. We can form some idea 
of the resources of the nation from the fact that the 
extraordinary taxes which they were obliged to pay to 
Charles Y. toward his numerous wars were computed 
at forty millions of gold ducats. 

For this affluence the Netherlands were as much 
indebted to their liberty as to the natural advantages of 
their country. Uncertain laws and the despotic sway 
of a rapacious prince would quickly have blighted all 
the blessings which propitious nature had so abun- 
dantly lavished on them. The inviolable sanctity of 
the laws can alone secure to the citizen the fruits 
of his industry, and inspire him with that happy 
confidence which is the soul of all activity. 

The genius of this people, developed by the spirit of 
commerce, and by the intercourse with so many 
nations, shone in useful inventions; in the lap of 
abundance and liberty all the noble arts were carefully 
cultivated and carried to perfection. From Italy, to 
which Cosmo de Medici had lately restored its golden 
age, painting, architecture, and the arts of carving and 
of engraving on copper, were transplanted into the 
Netherlands, where, in a new soil, they flourished with 
fresh vigour. The Flemish school, a daughter of the 
Italian, soon vied with its mother for the prize ; and, in 
common with it, gave laws to the whole of Europe 
in the fine arts. The manufactures and arts, on which 
the Netherlanders principally founded their prosperity, 
and still partly base it, require no particular enumera- 
tion. The weaving of tapestry, oil painting, the art of 
painting on glass, even pocket-watches and suu-dials 
were, as Guicciardini asserts, originally invented in the 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 17 

Netherlands. To tliem we are indebted for the im- 
provement of the compass, the points of which are still 
known by Flemish names. About the year 1430 the 
invention of typography is ascribed to Laurence Koster, 
of Haarlem ; and whether or not he is entitled to this 
honourable distinction, certain it is that the Dutch 
were among the first to engraft this useful art among 
them ; and fate ordained that a century later it should 
reward its country with liberty. The people of the 
Netherlands united with the most fertile genius for 
inventions a happy talent for improving the discoveries 
of others ; there are probably few mechanical arts and 
manufactures which they did not either produce or at 
least carry to a higher degree of perfection. 

THE NETHERLANDS UNDER CHARLES V. 

Up to this time these provinces had formed the 
most enviable state in Europe. Not one of the Bur- 
gundian dukes had ventured to indulge a thought of 
overturning the constitution ; it had remained sacred 
even to the daring spirit of Charles the Bold, while he 
was preparing fetters for foreign liberty. All these 
princes grew up with no higher hope than to be the 
heads of a republic, and none of their territories afforded 
them experience of a higher authority. Besides, these 
princes possessed nothing but what the Netherlands 
gave them ; no armies but those which the nation sent 
into the field ; no riches but what the estates granted 
to them. Now all was changed. The Netherlands 
had fallen to a master who had at his command other 
instruments and other resources, who could arm against 
them a foreign power.^ 

^The unnatural union of two such different nations as the 
Belgians and Spaniards could not possibly he prosperous. I can- 
not here refrain from quoting the comparison which Grotius, in 
energetic language, has drawn between the two. "With the 



l8 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

Charles V. was an absolute monarcli in his Spanish 
dominions ; in the Netherlands he has no more than the 
first citizen. In the southern portion of his empire he 

neighbouring nations," says he, "the people of the Netherlands 
could easily maintain a good understanding, for they were of a 
similar origin with themselves, and had grown up in the same 
manner. But the people of Spain and of the Netherlands differed 
in almost every respect from one another, and therefore, when 
they were brought together, clashed the more violently. Both 
had for many centuries been distinguished in war, only the latter 
had, in luxurious repose, become disused to arms, while the 
former had been inured to war in the Italian and African cam- 
paigns ; the desire of gain made the Belgians more inclined to 
peace, but not less sensitive of offence. No people were more 
free from the lust of conquest, but none defended its own more 
zealously. Hence the numerous towns, closely pressed together 
in a confined tract of country ; densely crowded with a foreign 
and native population ; fortified near the sea and the great rivers. 
Hence for eight centuries after the northern immigration foreign 
arms could not prevail against them. Spain, on the contrary, 
often changed its masters ; and when at last it fell into the hands 
of the Goths, its character and its manners had suffered more or 
less from each new conqueror. The people thus formed at last 
out of these several admixtures is described as patient in labour. 
Imperturbable in danger, equally eager for riches and honour, 
proud of itself even to contempt of others, devout and grateful to 
strangers for any act of kindness, but also revengeful, and of such 
ungovernable passions in victory as to regard neither conscience 
nor honour in the case of an enemy. All this is foreign to the 
character of the Belgian, who is astute but not insidious, who, 
placed midway between France and Germany, combines in modera- 
tion the faults and good qualities of both. He is not easily to be 
imposed upon, nor is he to be insulted with impunity. In venera- 
tion for the Deity, too, he does not yield to the Spaniard ; the 
arms of the Northmen could not make him apostatise from Chris- 
tianity when he had once professed it. No opinion which the 
Church condemns had, up to this time, empoisoned the purity of 
his faith. Nay, his pious extravagance went so far that it became 
requisite to cm-b by laws the rapacity of his clergy. In both peo- 
ple loyalty to their rulers is equally innate, with this difference, 
that the Belgian places the law above kings. Of all the Span- 
iards the Castilians require to be governed with the most caution ; 
but the liberties which they arrogate for themselves they do not 
willingly accord to others. Hence the difficult task to their com- 
mon ruler, so to distribute his attention and care between the two 
nations that neither the preference shown to the Castilian should 
offend the Belgian, nor the equal treatment of the Belgian affront 
the haughty spirit of the Castilian." — Grotii Annal. Belg. L. 1, 
4' 5. seq. 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 19 

might have learned contempt for the rights of individ- 
uals ; here he was taught to respect them. The more 
he there tasted the pleasures of unlimited power, and 
the higher he raised his opinion of his own greatness, 
the more reluctant he must have felt to descend 
elsewhere to the ordinary level of humanity, and to 
tolerate any check upon his arbitrary authority. It 
requires, indeed, no ordinary degree of virtue to abstain 
from warring against the power which imposes a curb 
on our most cherished wishes. 

The superior power of Charles awakened at the same 
time in the Netherlands that distrust which always 
accompanies inferiority. Never were they so alive to 
their constitutional rights, never so jealous of the royal 
prerogative, or more observant in their proceedings. 
Under his reign we see the most violent outbreaks of 
republican spirit, and the pretensions of the people 
carried to an excess which nothing but the increasing 
encroachments of the royal power could in the least 
justify. A sovereign will always regard the freedom 
of the citizen as an alienated fief, which he is bound to 
recover. To the citizen the authority of a sovereign is 
a torrent, which, by its inundation, threatens to sweep 
away his rights. The Belgians sought to protect them- 
selves against the ocean by embankments, and against 
their princes by constitutional enactments. The whole 
history of the world is a perpetually recurring struggle 
between liberty and the lust of power and possession ; 
as the history of nature is nothing but the contest of 
the elements and organic bodies for space. The Neth- 
erlands soon found to their cost that they had become 
but a province of a great monarchy. So long as their 
former masters had no higher aim than to promote 
their prosperity, their condition resembled the tranquil 
happiness of a secluded family, whose head is its ruler. 
Charles V. introduced them upon the arena of the 
political world. They now formed a member of that 



20 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

gigantic body which the ambition of an individual 
employed as his instrument. They ceased to have 
their own good for their aim ; the centre of their exist- 
ence was transported to the soul of their ruler. As 
his whole government was but one tissue of plans and 
manoeuvi'es to advance his power, so it was, above all 
things, necessary that he should be completely master 
of the various limbs of his mighty empu-e in order to 
move them effectually and suddenly. It was impossi- 
ble, therefore, for him to embarrass himself with the 
tiresome mechanism of their interior political organi- 
sation, or to extend to their peculiar privileges the 
conscientious respect which their repubhcan jealousy 
demanded. It was expedient for him to facilitate the 
exercise of their powers by concentration and unity. 
The tribunal at Malines had been under his prede- 
cessor an independent court of judicature ; he subjected 
its decrees to the revision of a royal council, w^hich he 
established in Brussels, and which was the mere organ 
of his will. He introduced foreigners into the most 
vital functions of their constitution, and confided to 
them the most important offices. These men, whose 
only support was the royal favour, would be but bad 
guardians of privileges which, moreover, were httle 
known to them. The ever-increasing expenses of his 
warlike government compelled him as steadily to aug- 
ment his resources. In disregard of their most sacred 
privileges he imposed new and strange taxes on the 
provinces. To preserve their olden consideration the 
estates were forced to grant what he had been so 
modest as not to extort ; the whole history of the gov- 
ernment of this monarch in the Netherlands is almost 
one continued list of imposts demanded, refused, and 
finally accorded. Contrary to the constitution, he in- 
troduced foreign troops into their territories, directed 
the recruiting of his armies in the provinces, and 
involved them in wars^ which could not advance even 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 21 

if they did not injure their interest, and to which they 
had not given their consent. He punished the offences 
of a free state as a monarch ; and the terrible chastise- 
ment of Ghent announced to the other pro\TJices the 
great change which their constitution had aheady 
undergone. 

The weKare of the country was so far secured as was 
necessary to the pohtical schemes of its master ; the 
intelhgent pohcy of Charles would certainly not violate 
the salutary regimen of the body whose energies he 
found himself necessitated to exert. Fortunately, the 
opposite pursuits of selfish ambition, and of disinter- 
ested philanthropy, often bring about the same end; 
and the well-being of a state, which a Marcus Aurelius 
might propose to himself as a rational object of pursuit, 
is occasionally promoted by an Augustus or a Louis. 

Charles Y. was perfectly aware that commerce was 
the strength of the nation, and that the foundation 
of their commerce was hberty. He spared its hberty 
because he needed its strength. Of greater pohtical 
wisdom, though not more just than his son, he adapted 
his principles to the exigencies of time and place, and 
recalled an ordinance in Antwerp and in Madrid which 
he would under other circumstances have enforced with 
all the terrors of his power. That which makes the 
reign of Charles V. particularly remarkable in regard 
to the Netherlands is the great rehgious revolution 
which occurred under it ; and which, as the principal 
cause of the subsequent rebelhon, demands a somewhat 
circumstantial notice. This it was that first brought 
arbitrary power into the innermost sanctuary of the 
constitution ; taught it to give a dreadful specimen of 
its might ; and, in a measure, legahsed it, while it 
placed repubhcan spirit on a dangerous eminence. And 
as the latter sank into anarchy and rebelhon monarchi- 
cal power rose to the height of despotism. 

Nothing is more natural than the transition from 



22 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

civil liberty to religious freedom. Individuals, as well 
as communities, who, favoured by a happy political 
constitution, have become acquainted with the rights 
of man, and accustomed to examine, if not also to 
create, the law which is to govern them ; whose minds 
have been enhghtened by activity, and feehngs ex- 
panded by the enjoyments of hfe ; whose natural 
courage has been exalted by internal security and 
prosperity ; such men will not easily surrender them- 
selves to the blind domination of a dull arbitrary creed, 
and will be the first to emancipate themselves from its 
yoke. Another circumstance, however, must have 
greatly tended to diffuse the new religion in these 
countries. Italy, it might be objected, the seat of the 
greatest intellectual culture, formerly the scene of 
the most violent pohtical factions, where a burning 
climate kindles the blood with the wildest passions — 
Italy, among all the* European countries, remained the 
freest from this change. But to a romantic people, 
whom a warm and lovely sky, a luxurious, ever young 
and ever smiling nature, and the multifarious witcheries 
of art, rendered keenly susceptible of sensuous enjoy- 
ment, that form of religion must naturally have been 
better adapted, which by its splendid pomp captivates 
the senses, by its mysterious enigmas opens an un- 
bounded range to the fancy ; and which, through the 
most picturesque forms, labours to insinuate important 
doctrines into the soul. On the contrary, to a people 
whom the ordinary employments of civil life have 
drawn down to an unpoetical reality, who live more in 
plain notions than in images, and who cultivate their 
common sense at the expense of their imagination — 
to such a people that creed will best recommend itself 
which dreads not investigation, which lays less stress 
on mysticism than on morals, and which is rather to be 
understood than to be dwelt upon in meditation. In 
few words, the Koman Catholic religion will, on the 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 23 

whole, be found more adapted to a nation of artists, 
the Protestant more fitted to a nation of merchants. 

On this supposition the new doctrines which Luther 
diffused in Germany, and Calvin in Switzerland, must 
have found a congenial soil in the Xetherlands. The 
first seeds of it were sown in the Netherlands by the 
Protestant merchants, who assembled at Amsterdam 
and Antwerp. The German and Swiss troops, which 
Charles introduced into these countries, and the crowd 
of French, German, and Eughsh fugitives who, under 
the protection of the hberties of Flanders, sought to 
escape the sword of persecution which threatened them 
at home, promoted theu' diffusion. A great portion of 
the Belgian nobility studied at that time at Geneva, 
as the University of Louvain was not yet in repute, and 
that of Douai not yet founded. The new tenets pub- 
Hcly taught there were transplanted by the students to 
their various countries. In an isolated people these 
first germs might easily have been crushed ; but in the 
market towns of Holland and Brabant, the resort of so 
many different nations, their first growth would escape 
the notice of government, and be accelerated under the 
veil of obscurity. A difference in opinion might easily 
spring up and gain gi'ound amongst those who abeady 
were divided in national character, in manners, customs, 
and laws. Moreover, in a country where industry was 
the most lauded virtue, mendicity the most abhoiTcd 
\dce, a slothful body of men, hke that of the monks, 
must have been an object of long and deep aversion. 
Hence, the new rehgion, which opposed these orders, 
derived an immense advantage fi'om ha^'ing the popu- 
lar opinion on its side. Occasional pamphlets, full of 
bitterness and satire, to which the newly discovered art 
of printing secured a rapid circulation, and several 
bands of strolhng orators, called Eederiker, who at that 
time made the chcuit of the provinces, ridicuHng in 
theatrical representations or songs the abuses of their 



24 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

times, contributed not a little to diminisli respect for 
the Eomish Church, and to prepare the people for the 
reception of the new dogmas. 

The first conquests of this doctrine were astonish- 
ingly rapid. The number of those who in a short time 
avowed themselves its adherents, especially in the 
northern provinces, was prodigious ; but among these 
the foreigners far outnumbered the natives. Charles 
v., who, in this hostile array of rehgious tenets, had 
taken the side which a despot could not fail to take, 
opposed to the increasing torrent of innovation the 
most effectual remedies. Unhappily for the reformed 
religion, political justice was on the side of its perse- 
cutor. The dam which, for so many centuries, had 
repelled human understanding from truth was too sud- 
denly torn away for the outbreaking torrent not to 
overflow its appointed channel. The reviving spirit of 
Hberty and of inquiry, which ought to have remained 
within the hmits of religious questions, began also to 
examine into the rights of kings. While in the com- 
mencement iron fetters were justly broken off, a desire 
was eventually shown to rend asunder the most legiti- 
mate and most indispensable of ties. Even the Holy 
Scriptures, which were now circulated everywhere, 
while they imparted light and nurture to the sincere 
inquirer after truth, were the source also whence an 
eccentric fanaticism contrived to extort the virulent 
poison. The good cause had been compelled to choose 
the evil road of rebellion, and the result was what in such 
cases it ever will be so long as men remain men. The 
bad cause, too, which had nothing in common with the 
good but the employment of illegal means, emboldened 
by this slight point of connection, appeared in the same 
company, and was mistaken for it. Luther had written 
against the invocation of saints ; every audacious varlet 
who broke into the churches and cloisters, and plun- 
dered the altars, called himself Lutheran. Faction, 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 25 

rapine, fanaticism, licentiousness robed themselves in 
his colours ; the most enormous offenders, when brought 
before the judges, avowed themselves his followers. 
The Eeformation had drawn down the Eoman prelate 
to a level with f alhble humanity ; an insane band, 
stimulated by hunger and want, sought to annihilate 
all distinction of ranks. It was natural that a doctrine, 
which to the state showed itself only in its most 
unfavourable aspect, should not have been able to 
reconcile a monarch who had already so many reasons 
to extirpate it ; and it is no wonder, therefore, that he 
employed against it the arms it had itself forced upon 
him. 

Charles must already have looked upon himself as 
absolute in the Netherlands since he did not think it 
necessary to extend to these countries the rehgious 
liberty which he had accorded to Germany. While, 
compelled by the effectual resistance of the German 
princes, he assured to the former country a free ex- 
ercise of the new rehgion, in the latter he published 
the most cruel edicts for its repression. By these the 
reading of the Evangelists and Apostles; all open or 
secret meetings to which rehgion gave its name in 
ever so shght a degree ; all conversations on the sub- 
ject, at home or at the table, were forbidden under 
severe penalties. In every province special courts of 
judicature were established to watch over the execu- 
tion of the edicts. AATioever held these erroneous 
opinions was to forfeit his office without regard to 
his rank. Whoever should be contacted of diffusing 
heretical doctrines, or even of simply attending the 
secret meetings of the Eeformers, was to be con- 
demned to death, and if a male, to be executed by 
the sword, if a female, buried ahve. BacksHding 
heretics were to be committed to the flames. Not 
even the recantation of the offender could annul these 
appalHng sentences. Whoever abjured his errors gained 



26 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

nothing by his apostacy but at farthest a milder kind 
of death. 

The fiefs of the condemned were also confiscated, 
contrary to the privileges of the nation, which per- 
mitted the heir to redeem them for a trifling fine ; and 
in defiance of an express and valuable privilege of 
the citizens of Holland, by which they were not to 
be tried out of their province, culprits were conveyed 
beyond the limits of the native judicature, and con- 
demned by foreign tribunals. Thus did religion guide 
the hand of despotism to attack with its sacred weapon, 
and without danger or opposition, the liberties which 
were inviolable to the secular arm. 

Charles V., emboldened by the fortunate progress 
of his arms in Germany, thought that he might now 
venture on everything, and seriously meditated the 
introduction of the Spanish Inquisition in the Nether- 
lands. But the terror of its very name alone reduced 
commerce in Antwerp to a standstill. The principal 
foreign merchants prepared to quit the city. All 
buying and selling ceased, the value of houses fell, 
the employment of artisans stopped. Money disap- 
peared from the hands of the citizen. The ruin of 
that flourishing commercial city was inevitable had 
not Charles V. listened to the representations of the 
Duchess of Parma, and abandoned this perilous re- 
solve. The tribunal, therefore, was ordered not to 
interfere with the foreign merchants, and the title of 
Inquisitor was changed unto the milder appellation 
of Spiritual Judge. But in the other provinces that 
tribunal proceeded to rage with the inhuman despotism 
which has ever been peculiar to it. It has been com- 
puted that during the reign of Charles V. fifty thousand 
persons perished by the hand of the executioner for 
religion alone. 

When we glance at the violent proceedings of this 
monarch we are quite at a loss to comprehend what 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 27 

it was that kept the rebellion within bounds during 
his reign, which broke out with so much violence 
under his successor. A closer investigation will clear 
up this seeming anomaly. Charles's dreaded supremacy 
in Europe had raised the commerce of the i^etherlands 
to a height which it had never before attained. The 
majesty of his name opened all harbours, cleared all 
seas for their vessels, and obtained for them the most 
favourable commercial treaties with foreign powers. 
Through him, in particular, they destroyed the do- 
minion of the Hansa towns in the Baltic. Through 
him, also, the New World, Spain, Italy, Germany, 
which now shared with them a common ruler, were, 
in a measure, to be considered as provinces of their 
own country, and opened new channels for their com- 
merce. He had, moreover, united the remaining six 
provinces with the hereditary states of Burgundy, and 
thus given to them an extent and political importance 
which placed them by the side of the first kingdoms 
of Europe.^ 

By all this he flattered the national pride of this 
people. Moreover, by the incorporation of Guelder s, 
Utrecht, Friesland, and Groningen with these prov- 
inces, he put an end to the private wars which had 
so long disturbed their commerce ; an unbroken inter- 

1 He had, too, at one time the intention of raising it to a king- 
dom ; but the essential points of difference between the provinces, 
which extended from constitution and manners to measures and 
weights, soon made him abandon this design. More important 
was the service which he designed them in the Burgundian treaty, 
which settled its relation to the German empire. According to 
this treaty the seventeen provinces were to contribute to the 
common wants of the German empire twice as much as an electoral 
prince ; in case of a Turkish war three times as much ; in return 
for which, however, they were to enjoy the powerful protection 
of this empire, and not to be injured in any of their various 
privileges. The revolution, which under Charles's son altered the 
political constitution of the provinces, again annulled this com- 
pact, which, on account of the trifling advantage that it conferred, 
deserves no further notice. 



28 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

nal peace now allowed them to enjoy the full fruits of 
their industry. Charles was therefore a benefactor 
of this people. At the same time, the splendour of 
his victories dazzled their eyes ; the glory of their 
sovereign, which was reflected upon them also, had 
bribed their republican vigilance; while the awe- 
inspiring halo of invincibility which encircled the 
conqueror of Germany, France, Italy, and Africa 
terrified the factious. And then, who knows not on 
how much may venture the man, be he a private 
individual or a prince, who has succeeded in en- 
chaining the admiration of his fellow creatures ! His 
repeated personal visits to these lands, which he, 
according to his own confession, visited as often as 
ten different times, kept the disaffected within bounds ; 
the constant exercise of severe and prompt justice 
maintained the awe of the royal power. Finally, 
Charles was born in the Netherlands, and loved the 
nation in whose lap he had grown up. Their manners 
pleased him, the simplicity of their character and 
social intercourse formed for him a pleasing recreation 
from the severe Spanish gravity. He spoke their 
language, and followed their customs in his private 
life. The burdensome ceremonies which form the 
unnatural barriers between king and people were 
banished from Brussels. No jealous foreigner debarred 
natives from access to their prince ; their way to him 
was through their own countrymen, to whom he en- 
trusted his person. He spoke much and courteously 
with them ; his deportment was engaging, his discourse 
obliging. ^ These simple artifices won for him their love, 
and while his armies trod down their cornfields, while 
his rapacious imposts diminished their property, while 
his governors oppressed, his executioners slaughtered, 
he secured their hearts by a friendly demeanour. 

Gladly would Charles have seen this affection of 
the nation for himself descend upon his son. On this 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 29 

account lie sent for him in his youth from Spain, and 
showed him in Brussels to his future subjects. On 
the solemn day of his abdication he recommended to 
him these lands as the richest jewel in his crown, 
and earnestly exhorted him to respect their laws and 
privileges. 

Philip II. was in all the direct opposite of his father. 
As ambitious as Charles, but with less knowledge of 
men and of the rights of man, he had formed to him- 
self a notion of royal authority which regarded men 
as simply the servile instruments of despotic will, and 
was outraged by every symptom of liberty. Born in 
Spain, and educated under the iron discipline of the 
monks, he demanded of others the same gloomy for- 
mality and reserve as marked his own character. The 
cheerful merriment of his Flemish subjects was as 
uncongenial to his disposition and temper as their 
privileges were offensive to his imperious will. He 
spoke no other language but the Spanish, endured 
none but Spaniards about his person, and obstinately 
adhered to all their customs. In vain did the loyal 
ingenuity of the Flemish towns through which he 
passed vie with each other in solemnising his arrival 
with costly festivities.^ Phihp's eye remained dark ; 
all the profusion of magnificence, all the loud and 
hearty effusions of the sincerest joy could not win 
from him one approving smile. 

Charles entirely missed his aim by presenting his 
son to the Flemings. They might . eventually have 
endured his yoke with less impatience if he had never 
set his foot in their land. But his look forewarned 
them what they had to expect ; his entry into Brus- 
sels lost him all hearts. The emperor's gracious affa- 
bility with his people only served to throw a darker 
shade on the haughty gravity of his son. They read 

1 The town of Antwerp alone expended on an occasion of this 
kind two hundred and sixty thousand gold florins. 



30 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

in his countenance the destructive purpose against 
their liberties which, even then, he already revolved 
in his breast. Forewarned to find in him a tyrant, 
they were forearmed to resist him. 

The throne of the Netherlands was the first which 
Charles Y. abdicated. Before a solemn convention in 
Brussels he absolved the States-General of their oath, 
and transferred their allegiance to King Philip, his 
son. " If my death," addressing the latter, as he con- 
cluded, " had placed you in possession of these coun- 
tries, even in that case so valuable a bequest would 
have given me great claims on your gratitude. But 
now that of my free will I transfer them to you, now 
that I die in order to hasten your enjoyment of them, 
I only require of you to pay to the people the in- 
creased obhgation which the voluntary surrender of 
my dignity lays upon you. Other princes esteem it 
a peculiar felicity to bequeath to their children the 
crown which death is already ravishing from them. 
This happiness I am anxious to enjoy during my life. 
I wish to be a spectator of your reign. Few will fol- 
low my example, as few have preceded me in it. But 
this my deed will be praised if your future life should 
justify my expectations, if you continue to be guided 
by that wisdom which you have hitherto evinced, if 
you remain inviolably attached to the pure faith which 
is the main pillar of your throne. One thing more I 
have to add : may Heaven grant you also a son, to 
whom you may transmit your power by choice, and 
not by necessity." 

After the emperor had concluded his address Philip 
kneeled down before him, kissed his hand, and re- 
ceived his paternal blessing. His eyes for the last 
time were moistened with a tear. All present wept. 
It was an hour never to be forgotten. 

This affecting farce was soon followed by another. 
Philip received the homage of the assembled states. 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 31 

He took the oath administered in the following words : 
" I, Philip, by the grace of God, Prince of Spain, of the 
two Sicihes, etc., do vow and swear that I will be 
a good and just lord in these countries, counties, and 
duchies, etc. ; that I will well and truly hold, and 
cause to be held, the privileges and liberties of all the 
nobles, towns, commons, and subjects which have been 
conferred upon them by my predecessors, and also the 
customs, usages, and rights which they now have and 
enjoy, jointly and severally, and, moreover, that I will 
do all that by law and right pertains to a good and 
just prince and lord, so help me God and all his 
saints." 

The alarm which the arbitrary government of the 
emperor had inspired, and the distrust of his son, are 
already visible in the formula of this oath, which was 
drawn up in far more guarded and explicit terms than 
that which had been administered to Charles Y. him- 
self and all the dukes in Burgundy. Philip, for in- 
stance, was compelled to swear to the maintenance of 
their customs and usages, what before his time had 
never been required. In the oath which the states 
took to him no other obedience was promised than 
such as should be consistent with the privileges of the 
country. His officers then were only to reckon on 
submission and support so long as they legally dis- 
charged the duties entrusted to them. Lastly, in this 
oath of allegiance, Philip is simply styled the natural, 
the hereditary prince, and not, as the emperor had 
desired, sovereign or lord; proof enough how little 
confidence was placed in the justice and liberality of 
the new sovereign. 

PHILIP II., KULER OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

Philip II. received the lordship of the Netherlands 
in the brightest period of their prosperity. He was 



32 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

the first of their princes who united them all under 
his authority. They now consisted of seventeen prov- 
inces ; the duchies of Brabant, Limburg, Luxembourg, 
and Guelders, the seven counties of Artois, Hainault, 
Flanders, Namur, Ziitphen, Holland, and Zealand, the 
margTavate of Antwerp, and the five lordships of 
Friesland, Mechhn (Malines), Utrecht, Overyssel, and 
Groningen, which, collectively, formed a great and 
powerful state, able to contend with monarchies. 
Higher than it then stood their commerce could not 
rise. The sources of their wealth were above the 
earth's surface, but they were more valuable and in- 
exhaustible and richer than all the mines in Amer- 
ica. These seventeen provinces which, taken together, 
scarcely comprised the fifth part of Italy, and do not 
extend beyond three hundred Flemish miles, yielded 
an annual revenue to their lord not much inferior to 
that which Britain formerly paid to its kings before 
the latter had annexed so many of the ecclesiastical 
domains to their crown. Three hundred and fifty 
cities, alive with industry and pleasure, many of them 
fortified by their natural position and secure without 
bulwarks or walls ; six thousand three hundred market 
towns of a larger size; smaller villages, farms, and 
castles innumerable, imparted to this territory the 
aspect of one unbroken, flourishing landscape. The 
nation had now reached the meridian of its splendour ; 
industry and abundance had exalted the genius of the 
citizen, enhghtened his ideas, ennobled his affections ; 
every flower of the intellect had opened with the 
flourishing condition of the country. A happy tem- 
perament under a severe climate cooled the ardour of 
their blood, and moderated the rage of their passions ; 
equanimity, moderation, and enduring patience, the 
gifts of a northern clime ; integrity, justice, and faith, 
the necessary virtues of their profession ; and the 
delightful fruits of hberty, truth, benevolence, and a 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 33 

patriotic pride were blended in their cliaracter, with 
a slight admixture of human frailties. No people on 
earth was more easily governed by a prudent prince, 
and none with more difficulty by a charlatan or a 
tyrant. Nowhere was the popular voice so infallible 
a test of good government as here. True statesman- 
ship could be tried in no nobler school, and a sickly 
artificial policy had none worse to fear. 

A state constituted like this could act and endure 
with gigantic energy whenever pressing emergencies 
called forth its powers and a skilful and provident 
administration elicited its resources. Charles V. be- 
queathed to his successor an authority in these prov- 
inces little inferior to that of a limited monarchy. 
The prerogative of the crown had gained a visible 
ascendency over the republican spirit, and that compli- 
cated machine could now be set in motion, almost as 
certainly and rapidly as the most absolutely governed 
nation. The numerous nobility, formerly so powerful, 
cheerfully accompanied their sovereign in his wars, or, 
on the civil changes of the state, courted the approving 
smile of royalty. The crafty policy of the crown had 
created a new and imaginary good, of which it was 
the exclusive dispenser. New passions and new ideas 
of happiness supplanted at last the rude simplicity of 
republican virtue. Pride gave place to vanity, true 
liberty to titles of honour, a needy independence to a 
luxurious servitude. To oppress or to plunder their 
native land as the absolute satraps of an absolute lord 
was a more powerful allurement for the avarice and 
ambition of the great, than in the general assembly of 
the state to share with the monarch a hundredth part 
of the supreme power. A large portion, moreover, of 
the nobility were deeply sunk in poverty and debt. 
Charles V. had crippled all the most dangerous vassals 
of the crown by expensive embassies to foreign courts, 
under the specious pretext of honorary distinctions. 



34 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

Thus, William of Orange was despatched to Germany 
with the imperial crown, and Count Egmont to con- 
clude the marriage contract between Philip and Queen 
Mary. Both also afterward accompanied the Duke of 
Alva to France to negotiate the peace between the two 
crowns, and the new alliance of their sovereign with 
Madame Elizabeth. The expenses of these journeys 
amounted to three hundred thousand florins, toward 
which the king did not contribute a single penny. 
When the Prince of Orange was appointed general- 
issimo in the place of the Duke of Savoy he was 
obliged to defray all the necessary expenses of his 
office. When foreign ambassadors or princes came 
to Brussels it was made incumbent on the nobles to 
maintain the honour of their king, who himself always 
dined alone, and never kept open table. Spanish pohcy 
had devised a still more ingenious contrivance grad- 
ually to impoverish the richest families of the land. 
Every year one of the Castilian nobles made his 
appearance in Brussels, where he displayed a lavish 
magnificence. In Brussels it was accounted an indeli- 
ble disgrace to be distanced by a stranger in such 
munificence. All vied to surpass him, and exhausted 
their fortunes in this costly emulation, while the 
Spaniard made a timely retreat to his native country, 
and by the frugality of four years repaired the extrav- 
agance of one year. It was the foible of the Nether- 
landish nobility to contest with every stranger the 
credit of superior wealth, and of this weakness the 
government studiously availed itself. Certainly these 
arts did not in the sequel produce the exact result that 
had been calculated on ; for these pecuniary burdens 
only made the nobility the more disposed for innova- 
tion, since he who has lost all can only be a gainer in 
the general ruin. 

The Roman Church had ever been a main support 
of the royal power, and it was only natural that it 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 35 

should be so. Its golden time was the bondage of the 
human intellect, and, like royalty, it had gained by 
the ignorance and weakness of men. Civil oppression 
made rehgion more necessary and more dear ; submis- 
sion to tyi'annical power prepares the mind for a blind, 
convenient faith, and the hierarchy repaid with usury 
the services of despotism. In the provinces the bish- 
ops and prelates were zealous supporters of royalty, 
and ever ready to sacrifice the welfare of the citizen to 
the temporal advancement of the Church and the polit- 
ical interests of the sovereign. 

JSTumerous and brave garrisons also held the cities in 
awe, which were at the same time divided by religious 
squabbles and factions, and consequently deprived of 
their strongest support — union among themselves. 
How httle, therefore, did it require to ensure this pre- 
ponderance of Philip's power, and how fatal must have 
been the folly by which it was lost. 

But PhiHp's authority in these provinces, however 
gTeat, did not surpass the influence which the Spanish 
monarchy at that time enjoyed throughout Europe. 
ITo state ventured to enter the arena of contest with it. 
France, its most dangerous neighbour, weakened by a 
destructive war, and still more by internal factions, which 
boldly raised their heads during the feeble government 
of a child, was advancing rapidly to that unhappy 
condition which, for nearly half a century, made it 
a theatre of the most enormous crimes and the most 
fearful calamities. In England Elizabeth could with 
difficulty protect her still tottering throne against the 
furious storms of faction, and her new church estab- 
lishment against the insidious arts of the Romanists. 
That country still awaited her mighty call before it could 
emerge from a humble obscurity, and had not yet been 
awakened by the faulty pohcy of her rival to that 
vigour and energy with which it finally overthrew 
him. The imperial family of Germany was united 



36 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

with that of Spain by the double ties of blood and 
political interest; and the victorious progress of Soli- 
man drew its attention more to the east than to the 
west of Europe. Gratitude and fear secured to Philip 
the Italian princes, and his creatures ruled the Con- 
clave. The monarchies of the North still lay in bar- 
barous darkness and obscurity, or only just began to 
acquire form and strength, and were as yet unrecog- 
nised in the political system of Europe. The most 
skilful generals, numerous armies accustomed to vic- 
tory, a formidable marine, and the golden tribute from 
the West Indies, which now first began to come in 
regularly and certainly — what terrible instruments 
were these in the firm and steady hand of a talented 
prince ! Under such auspicious stars did King Philip 
commence his reign. 

Before we see him act we must first look hastily 
into the deep recesses of his soul, and we shall there 
find a key to his political life. Joy and benevolence 
were wholly wanting in the composition of his char- 
acter. His temperament, and the gloomy years of his 
early childhood, denied him the former ; the latter 
could not be imparted to him by men who had re- 
nounced the sweetest and most powerful of the social 
ties. Two ideas, his own self and what was above that 
self, engrossed his narrow and contracted mind. Ego- 
tism and religion were the contents and the title-page 
of the history of his whole life. He was a king and a 
Christian, and was bad in both characters ; he never 
was a man among men, because he never condescended 
but only ascended. His belief was dark and cruel ; 
for his divinity was a being of terror, from whom he 
had nothing to hope but everything to fear. To the 
ordinary man the divinity appears as a comforter, as a 
Saviour ; before his mind it was set up as an image of 
fear, a painful, humiliating check to his human omnipo- 
tence. His veneration for this being was so much the 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 37 

more profound and deeply rooted the less it extended 
to other objects. He trembled servilely before God 
because God was the only being before whom he had 
to tremble. Charles V. was zealous for religion be- 
cause religion promoted his objects. Phihp was so 
because he had real faith in it. The former let loose 
the fire and the sword upon thousands for the sake of 
a dogma, while he himself, in the person of the Pope, 
his captive, derided the very doctrine for which he 
had sacrificed so much human blood. It was only with 
repugnance and scruples of conscience that Phihp 
resolved on the most just war against the Pope, and 
resigned all the fruits of his victory as a penitent male- 
factor surrenders his booty. The emperor was cruel 
from calculation, his son from impulse. The first 
possessed a strong and enlightened spirit, and was, 
perhaps, so much the worse as a man ; the second was 
narrow-minded and weak, but the more upright. 

Both, however, as it appears to me, might have 
been better men than they actually were, and still, on 
the whole, have acted on the very same principles. 
What we lay to the charge of personal character of 
an individual is very often the infirmity, the necessary 
imperfection of universal human nature. A monarchy 
so great and so powerful was too great a trial for 
human pride, and too mighty a charge for human 
power. To combine universal happiness with the 
highest hberty of the indi\^dual is the sole prerogative 
of infinite intelHgence, which diffuses itself omni- 
presently over all. But what resource has man when 
placed in the position of omnipotence ? Man can 
only aid his circumscribed powers by classification ; 
like the naturahst, he establishes certain marks and 
rules by which .to facilitate his own feeble survey of 
the whole, to which all individuals must conform. 
All this is accomphshed for him by religion. She 
finds hope and fear planted in every human breast; 



38 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

by making herself mistress of these emotions, and 
directing their affections to a single object, she vir- 
tually transforms millions of independent beings into 
one uniform abstract. The endless diversity of the 
human will no longer embarrasses its ruler — now 
there exists one universal good, one universal evil, 
which he can bring forward or withdraw at pleasure, 
and which works in unison with himself even when 
absent. Now a boundary is estabhshed before which 
liberty must halt ; a venerable, hallowed line, toward 
which all the various conflicting inchnations of the 
will must finally converge. The common aim of 
despotism and of priestcraft is uniformity, and uni- 
formity is a necessary expedient of human poverty 
and imperfection. Philip became a greater despot 
than his father because his mind was more contracted, 
or, in other words, he was forced to adhere the more 
scrupulously to general rules the less capable he was 
of descending to special and individual exceptions. 
What conclusion could we draw from these principles 
but that Phihp II. could not possibly have any higher 
object of his solicitude than uniformity, both in relig- 
ion and in laws, because without these he could not 
reign ? 

And yet he would have shown more mildness and 
forbearance in his government if he had entered upon 
it earlier. In the judgment which is usually formed 
of this prince one circumstance does not appear to be 
sufficiently considered in the history of his mind and 
heart, which, however, in all fairness, ought to be 
duly weighed. Philip counted nearly thirty years 
when he ascended the Spanish throne, and the early 
maturity of his understanding had anticipated the 
period of his majority. A mind like his, conscious 
of its powers, and only too early acquainted with his 
high expectations, could not brook the yoke of childish 
subjection in which he stood ; the superior genius of 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 39 

the father, and the absolute authority of the autocrat, 
must have weighed heavily on the self-satisfied pride 
of such a son. The share which the former allowed 
him in the government of the empire was just impor- 
tant enough to disengage his mind from petty passions 
and to confirm the austere gravity of his character, 
but also meagre enough to kindle a fiercer longing 
for unlimited power. When he actually became 
possessed of uncontrolled authority it had lost the 
charm of novelty. The sweet intoxication of a 
young monarch in the sudden and early possession of 
supreme power ; that joyous tumult of emotions which 
opens the soul to every softer sentiment, and to which 
humanity has owed so many of the most valuable 
and the most prized of its institutions; this pleasing 
moment had for him long passed by, or had never 
existed. His character was already hardened when 
fortune put him to this severe test, and his settled 
principles withstood the colHsion of occasional emotion. 
He had had time, during fifteen years, to prepare him- 
self for the change; and instead of youthful dallying 
with the external symbols of his new station, or of 
losing the morning of his government in the intoxi- 
cation of an idle vanity, he remained composed and 
serious enough to enter at once on the full possession 
of his power so as to revenge himself through the 
most extensive employment of it for its having been 
so long withheld from him. 

THE TEIBUNAL OF THE INQUISITION. 

Philip II. no sooner saw himself, through the peace 
of Chateau-Cambray, in undisturbed enjoyment of his 
immense territory than he turned his whole attention 
to the great work of purifying religion, and verified 
the fears of his Netherlandish subjects. The ordi- 
nances which his father had caused to be promulgated 



40 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

against heretics were renewed in all their rigour, and 
terrible tribunals, to whom nothing but the name 
of inquisition was wanting, were appointed to watch 
over their execution. But his plan appeared to him 
scarcely more than half-fulfilled so long as he could 
not transplant into these countries the Spanish In- 
quisition in its perfect form — a design in which the 
emperor had already suffered shipwreck. 

The Spanish Inquisition is an institution of a new 
and peculiar kind, which finds no prototype in the 
whole course of time, and admits of comparison with 
no ecclesiastical or civil tribunal. Inquisition had 
existed from the time when reason meddled with what 
is holy, and from the very commencement of skepti- 
cism and innovation ; but it was in the middle of the 
thirteenth century, after some examples of apostasy 
had alarmed the hierarchy, that Innocent III. first 
erected for it a pecuhar tribunal, and separated, in an 
unnatural manner, ecclesiastical superintendence and 
instruction from its judicial and retributive office. In 
order to be the more sure that no human sensibiHties 
or natural tenderness should thwart the stern sever- 
ity of its statutes, he took it out of the hands of the 
bishops and secular clergy, who, by the ties of civil 
hfe, were still too much attached to humanity for his 
purpose, and consigned it to those of the monks, a 
half-denaturahsed race of beings who had abjured the 
sacred feelings of nature, and were the servile tools 
of the Roman See. The Inquisition was received in 
Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and France ; a Fran- 
ciscan monk sat as judge in the terrible court, which 
passed sentence on the Templars. A few states suc- 
ceeded either in totally excluding or else in subjecting 
it to civil authority. The Netherlands had remained 
free from it until the government of Charles V. ; their 
bishops exercised the spiritual censorship, and in ex- 
traordinary cases reference was made to foreign courts 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 41 

of inquisition; by the French provinces to that of 
Paris, by the Germans to that of Cologne. 

But the Inquisition which we are here speaking of 
came from the west of Europe, and was of a different 
origin and form. The last Moorish throne in G-ranada 
had fallen in the fifteenth century, and the false faith 
of the Saracens had finally succumbed before the for- 
tunes of Christianity. But the gospel was still new, 
and but imperfectly estabhshed in this youngest of 
Christian kingdoms, and in the confused mixture of 
heterogeneous laws and manners the rehgions had 
become mixed. It is true the sword of persecution 
had driven many thousand famihes to Africa, but a 
far larger portion, detained by the love of climate and 
home, purchased remission from this dreadful necessity 
by a show of conversion, and continued at Christian 
altars to serve Mohammed and Moses. So long as 
prayers were offered toward Mecca, Granada was not 
subdued ; so long as the new Christian, in the retire- 
ment of his house, became again a Jew or a Moslem, 
he was as Little secured to the throne as to the Eomish 
See. It was no longer deemed sufficient to compel a 
perverse people to adopt the exterior forms of a new 
faith, or to wed it to the victorious church by the 
weak bands of ceremonials ; the object now was to 
extirpate the roots of an old religion, and to subdue 
an obstinate bias which, by the slow operation of cen- 
turies, had been implanted in their manners, their lan- 
guage, and their laws, and by the enduring influence 
of a paternal soil and sky was still maintained in its 
full extent and vigour. 

If the Church wished to triumph completely over 
the opposing worship, and to secure her new conquest 
beyond all chance of relapse, it was indispensable that 
she should undermine the foundation itself on which 
the old religion was built. It was necessary to break 
to pieces the entire form of moral character to which 



42 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

it was so closely and intimately attached. It was 
requisite to loosen its secret roots from the hold they 
had taken in the innermost depths of the soul ; to 
extinguish all traces of it, both in domestic life and 
in the civil world ; to cause all recollection of it to 
perish ; and, if possible, to destroy the very suscepti- 
bility for its impressions. Country and family, con- 
science and honour, the sacred feelings of society and 
of nature, are ever the first and immediate ties to 
which religion attaches itself ; from these it derives 
while it imparts strength. This connection was now 
to be dissolved; the old religion was violently to be 
dissevered from the holy feehngs of nature, even at 
the expense of the sanctity itself of these emotions. 
Thus arose that Inquisition which, to distinguish it 
from the more humane tribunals of the same name, 
we usually call the Spanish. Its founder was Cardinal 
Ximenes, a Dominican monk. Torquemada was the 
first who ascended its bloody throne, who established 
its statutes, and for ever cursed his order with this 
bequest. Sworn to the degradation of the under- 
standing and the murder of intellect, the instruments 
it employed were terror and infamy. Every evil pas- 
sion was in its pay ; its snare was set in every joy of 
life. Solitude itself was not safe from it ; the fear 
of its omnipresence fettered the freedom of the soul in 
its inmost and deepest recesses. It prostrated all the 
instincts of human nature before it yielded all the ties 
which otherwise man held most sacred. A heretic for- 
feited all claims upon his race ; the most trivial infidel- 
ity to his mother church divested him of the rights of 
his nature. A modest doubt in the infallibihty of the 
Pope met with the punishment of parricide and the 
infamy of sodomy ; its sentences resembled the fright- 
ful corruption of the plague, which turns the most 
healthy body into rapid putrefaction. Even the inani- 
mate things belonging to a heretic were accursed. No 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 43 

destiny could snatch the victim of the Inquisition from 
its sentence. Its decrees were carried in force on 
corpses and on pictures, and the grave itself was 
no asylum from its tremendous arm. The presumptu- 
ous arrogance of its decrees could only be surpassed 
by the inhumanity which executed them. By coup- 
ling the ludicrous with the terrible, and by amusing 
the eye with the strangeness of its processions, it 
weakened compassion by the gratification of another 
feeling; it drowned sympathy in derision and con- 
tempt. The delinquent was conducted with solemn 
pomp to the place of execution, a blood-red flag was 
displayed before him, the universal clang of all the 
bells accompanied the procession. First came the 
priests, in the robes of the Mass and singing a sacred 
hymn ; next followed the condemned sinner, clothed 
in a yellow vest, covered with figures of black devils. 
On his head he wore a paper cap, surmounted by a 
human figure, around which played lambent flames 
of fire, and ghastly demons flitted. The image of the 
crucified Saviour was carried before, but turned away 
from the eternally condemned sinner, for whom salva- 
tion was no longer available. His mortal body be- 
longed to the material fire, his immortal soul to the 
flames of hell. A gag closed his mouth, and prevented 
him from alleviating his pain by lamentations, from 
awakening compassion by his affecting tale, and from 
divulging the secrets of the holy tribunal. He was 
followed by the clergy in festive robes, by the magis- 
trates, and the nobility ; the fathers who had been his 
judges closed the awful procession. It seemed Hke 
a solemn funeral procession, but on looking for the 
corpse on its way to the grave, behold ! it was a living 
body whose groans are now to afford such shuddering 
entertainment to the people. The executions were 
generally held on the high festivals, for which a num- 
ber of such unfortunate sufferers were reserved in the 



44 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

prisons of the holy house, in order to enhance the re- 
joicing by the multitude of the victims, and on these 
occasions the king himself was usually present. He 
sat with uncovered head, on a lower chair than that 
of the Grand Inquisitor, to whom, on such occasions, 
he yielded precedence ; who, then, would not tremble 
before a tribunal at which majesty must humble itself ? 

The great revolution in the Church accomplished by 
Luther and Calvin renewed the causes to which this 
tribunal owed its first origin ; and that which, at its 
commencement, was invented to clear the petty king- 
dom of Granada from the feeble remnant of Saracens 
and Jews was now required for the whole of Christen- 
dom. All the Inquisitions in Portugal, Italy, Ger- 
many, and France adopted the form of the Spanish; 
it followed Europeans to the Indies, and established 
in Goa a fearful tribunal, whose inhuman proceedings 
make us shudder even at the bare recital. Wherever 
it planted its foot devastation followed ; but in no part 
of the world did it rage so violently as in Spain. The 
victims are forgotten whom it immolated ; the human 
race renews itself, and the lands, too, flourish again 
which it has devastated and depopulated by its fury ; 
but centuries will elapse before its traces disappear 
from the Spanish character. A generous and enhght- 
ened nation has been stopped by it on its road to per- 
fection ; it has banished genius from a region where it 
was indigenous, and a stillness like that which hangs 
over the gi-ave has been left in the mind of a people 
who, beyond most others of our world, were framed 
for happiness and enjoyment. 

The first Inquisitor in Brabant was appointed by 
Charles V. in the year 1522. Some priests were asso- 
ciated with him as coadjutors ; but he himself was a 
layman. After the death of Adrian VI., his successor, 
Clement VII., appointed three Inquisitors for all the 
Netherlands ; and Paul III. again reduced them to two. 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 45 

which number continued until the commencement of 
the troubles. In the year 1530, with the aid and 
approbation of the states, the edicts against heretics 
were promulgated, which formed the foundation of all 
that followed, and in which, also, express mention is 
made of the Inquisition. In the year 1550, in con- 
sequence of the rapid increase of sects, Charles V. was 
under the necessity of reviving and enforcing these 
edicts, and it was on this occasion that the town of 
Antwerp opposed the establishment of the Inquisition, 
and obtained an exemption from its jurisdiction. But 
the spirit of the Inquisition in the Netherlands, in 
accordance with the genius of the country, was more 
humane than in Spain, and as yet had never been 
administered by a foreigner, much less by a Dominican. 
The edicts which were known to everybody served it 
as the rule of its decisions. On this very account 
it was less obnoxious; because, however severe its 
sentence, it did not appear a tool of arbitrary power, 
and it did not, like the Spanish Inquisition, veil itself 
in secrecy. 

Phihp, however, was desirous of introducing the 
latter tribunal into the Netherlands, since it appeared 
to him the instrument best adapted to destroy the 
spirit of this people, and to prepare them for a despotic 
government. He began, therefore, by increasing the 
rigour of the reHgious ordinances of his father; by 
gradually extending the power of the inquisitors ; 
by making the proceedings more arbitrary, and more 
independent of the civil jurisdiction. The tribunal 
soon wanted httle more than the name and the Do- 
minicans to resemble in every point the Spanish 
Inquisition. Bare suspicion was enough to snatch a 
citizen from the bosom of public tranquilhty, and from 
his domestic circle; and the weakest evidence was a 
sufficient justification for the use of the rack. Who- 
ever fell into its abyss returned no more to the world. 



46 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

All the benefits of the laws ceased for him; the 
maternal care of justice no longer noticed him ; beyond 
the pale of his former world malice and stupidity 
judged him according to laws which were never in- 
tended for man. The delinquent never knew his 
accuser, and very seldom his crime, — a flagitious, 
devihsh artifice which constrained the unhappy victim 
to guess at his error, and in the delirium of the rack, 
or in the weariness of a long living interment, to 
acknowledge transgressions which, perhaps, had never 
been committed, or at least had never come to the 
knowledge of his judges. The goods of the con- 
demned were confiscated, and the informer encouraged 
by letters of grace and rewards. No privilege, no 
civil jurisdiction was valid against the holy power; 
the secular arm lost for ever all whom that power had 
once touched. Its only share in the judicial duties of 
the latter was to execute its sentences with humble 
submissiveness. The consequences of such an in- 
stitution were, of necessity, unnatural and horrible ; 
the whole temporal happiness, the life itself, of an 
innocent man was at the mercy of any worthless 
fellow. Every secret enemy, every envious person, 
had now the perilous temptation of an unseen and 
unfaihng revenge. The security of property, the 
sincerity of intercourse were gone ; all the ties of 
interest were dissolved ; all of blood and of affection 
were irreparably broken. An infectious distrust en- 
venomed social life; the dreaded presence of a spy 
terrified the eye from seeing, and choked the voice in 
the midst of utterance. No one beheved in the ex- 
istence of an honest man, or passed for one himself. 
Good name, the ties of country, brotherhood, even 
oaths, and all that man holds sacred, were fallen in 
estimation. Such was the destiny to which a great 
and flourishing commercial town was subjected, where 
one hundred thousand industrious men had been 






v^<i .ii^c.^ 





I his crime, — a fi 



. Lu tne 

the con- 

•rn'ourased 



ties of 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 47 

brought together by the single tie of mutual confi- 
dence, — every one indispensable to his neighbour, yet 
every one distrusted and distrustful, — all attracted 
by the spirit of gain, and repelled from each other by 
fear, — all the props of society torn away, where social 
union was the basis of all life and all existence. 

OTHER ENCROACHMENTS ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE 

NETHERLANDS. 

No wonder if so unnatural a tribunal, which had 
proved intolerable even to the more submissive spirit 
of the Spaniard, drove a free state to rebelhon. But 
the terror which it inspired was increased by the 
Spanish troops, which, even after the restoration of 
peace, were kept in the country, and, in violation of 
the constitution, garrisoned border towns. Charles V. 
had been forgiven for this introduction of foreign 
troops so long as the necessity of it was evident, and 
his good intentions were less distrusted. But now 
men saw in these troops only the alarming preparations 
of oppression and the instruments of a detested hier- 
archy. Moreover, a considerable body of cavalry, 
composed of natives, and fully adequate for the pro- 
tection of the country, made these foreigners super- 
fluous. The licentiousness and rapacity, too, of the 
Spaniards, whose pay was long in arrear, and who 
indemnified themselves at the expense of the citizens, 
completed the exasperation of the people, and drove 
the lower orders to despair. Subsequently, when the 
general murmur induced the government to move 
them from the frontiers and transport them into the 
islands of Zealand, where ships were prepared for 
their deportation, their excesses were carried to such 
a pitch that the inhabitants left off working at the 
embankments, and preferred to abandon their native 
country to the fury of the sea rather than to submit 



48 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

any longer to the wanton brutality of these lawless 
bands. 

Phihp, indeed, would have wished to retain these 
Spaniards in the country, in order by their presence to 
give weight to his edicts, and to support the innova- 
tions which he had resolved to make in the consti- 
tution of the Netherlands. He regarded them as a 
guarantee for the submission of the nation, and as 
a chain by which he held it captive. Accordingly, he 
left no expedient untried to evade the persevering 
importunity of the states, who demanded the with- 
drawal of these troops ; and for this end he exhausted 
all the resources of chicanery and persuasion. At one 
time he pretended to dread a sudden invasion by 
Trance, although, torn by furious factions, that country 
could scarce support itself against a domestic enemy ; 
at another time they were, he said, to receive his son, 
Don Carlos, on the frontiers ; whom, however, he 
never intended should leave Castile. Their mainte- 
nance should not be a burden to the nation ; he him- 
self would disburse all their expenses from his private 
purse. In order to detain them with the more ap- 
pearance of reason he purposely kept back from them 
their arrears of pay; for otherwise he would assur- 
edly have preferred them to the troops of the country, 
whose demands he fully satisfied. To lull the fears 
of the nation, and to appease the general discontent, 
he offered the chief command of these troops to the 
two favourites of the people, the Prince of Orange and 
Count Egmont. Both, however, declined his offer, 
with the noble-minded declaration that they could 
never make up their minds to serve contrary to the 
laws of the country. The more desire the king showed 
to have his Spaniards in the country the more obsti- 
nately the states insisted on their removal. In the 
following Diet at Ghent he was compelled, in the very 
midst of his courtiers, to listen to republican truth. 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 49 

" Why are foreign hands needed for our defence ? " 
demanded the Syndic of Ghent. " Is it that the rest 
of the world should consider us too stupid, or too 
cowardly, to protect ourselves ? Why have we made 
peace if the burdens of war are still to oppress us ? 
In war necessity enforced endurance ; in peace our 
patience is exhausted by its burdens. Or shall we be 
able to keep in order these Ucentious bands which 
thine own presence could not restrain ? Here, Cam- 
bray and Antwerp cry for redress; there, Thionville 
and Marienburg lie waste ; and, surely, thou hast not 
bestowed upon us peace that our cities should become 
deserts, as they necessarily must if thou freest them 
not from these destroyers ? Perhaps thou art anxious 
to guard against surprise from our neighbours ? This 
precaution is wise ; but the report of their preparations 
will long outrun their hostilities. Why incur a heavy 
expense to engage foreigners who will not care for a 
country which they must leave to-morrow ? Hast 
thou not still at thy command the same brave Nether- 
landers to whom thy father entrusted the republic in 
far more troubled times ? Why shouldest thou now 
doubt their loyalty, which, to thy ancestors, they have 
preserved for so many centuries inviolate ? Will not 
they be sufficient to sustain the war long enough to 
give time to thy confederates to join their banners, 
or to thyself to send succour from the neighbouring 
country ? " This language was too new to the king, 
and its truth too obvious for him to be able at once 
to reply to it. " I, also, am a foreigner," he at length 
exclaimed, " and they would like, I suppose, to expel 
me from the country ! " At the same time he de- 
scended from the throne, and left the assembly ; but 
the speaker was pardoned for his boldness. Two days 
afterward he sent a message to the states that if he 
had been apprised earlier that these troops were a 
burden to them he would have immediately made 



50 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

preparation to remove them with himself to Spain. 
Now it was too late, for they would not depart unpaid ; 
but he pledged them his most sacred promise that 
they should not be oppressed with this burden more 
than four months. Nevertheless, the troops remained 
in this country eighteen months instead of four; and 
would not, perhaps, even then have left it so soon if 
the exigencies of the state had not made their presence 
indispensable in another part of the world. 

The illegal appointment of foreigners to the most 
important offices of the country afforded further occa- 
sion of complaint against the government. Of all the 
privileges of the provinces none was so obnoxious to 
the Spaniards as that which excluded strangers from 
office, and none they had so zealously sought to abro- 
gate. Italy, the two Indies, and all the provinces of 
this vast Empire, were indeed open to their rapacity 
and ambition; but from the richest of them all an 
inexorable fundamental law excluded them. They 
artfully persuaded their sovereign that his power in 
these countries would never be firmly estabhshed so 
long as he could not employ foreigners as his instru- 
ments. The Bishop of Arras, a Burgundian by birth, 
had already been illegally forced upon the Flemings ; 
and now the Count of Feria, a Castilian, was to receive 
a seat and voice in the council of state. But this 
attempt met with a bolder resistance than the king's 
flatterers had led him to expect, and his despotic om- 
nipotence was this time wrecked by the politic measures 
of William of Orange and the firmness of the states. 

WILLIAM OF OEANGE AND COUNT EGMONT. 

By such measures did PhiHp usher in his govern- 
ment of the Netherlands, and such were the grievances 
of the nation when he was preparing to leave them. 
He had long been impatient to quit a country where he 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 51 

was a stranger, where there was so much that opposed 
his secret wishes, and where his despotic mind found 
such undaunted monitors to remind him of the laws of 
freedom. The peace with France at last rendered a 
longer stay unnecessary; the armaments of Soliman 
required his presence in the south, and the Spaniards 
also began to miss their long-absent king. The choice 
of a supreme Stadtholder for the ISTetherlands was the 
principal matter which still detained him. Emanuel 
Philibert, Duke of Savoy, had filled this place since the 
resignation of Mary, Queen of Hungary, which, how- 
ever, so long as the king himself was present, conferred 
more honour than real influence. His absence would 
make it the most important office in the monarchy, 
and the most splendid aim for the ambition of a subject. 
It had now become vacant through the departure of 
the duke, whom the peace of Chateau-Cambray had 
restored to his dominions. The almost unlimited power 
with which the supreme Stadtholder would be entrusted, 
the capacity and experience which so extensive and 
delicate an appointment required, but, especially, the 
daring designs which the government had in contem- 
plation against the freedom of the country, the ex- 
ecution of which would devolve on him, necessarily 
embarrassed the choice. The law, which excluded all 
foreigners from office, made an exception in the case of 
the supreme Stadtholder. As he could not be at the 
same time a native of all the provinces, it was allow- 
able for him not to belong to any one of them; for 
the jealousy of the man of Brabant would concede no 
greater right to a Fleming, whose home was half a mile 
from his frontier, than to a SiciHan, who lived in another 
soil and under a different sky. But here the interests 
of the crown itself seemed to favour the appointment 
of a native. A Brabanter, for instance, who enjoyed 
the full confidence of his countrymen if he were a 
traitor would have half accomplished his treason before 



52 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

a foreign governor could have overcome the mistrust 
with which his most insignificant measures would be 
watched. If the government should succeed in carry- 
ing through its designs in one province, the opposition 
of the rest would then be a temerity, which it would 
be justified in punishing in the severest manner. In 
the common whole which the provinces now formed 
their individual constitutions were, in a measure, de- 
stroyed ; the obedience of one would be a law for all, 
and the privilege, which one knew not how to preserve, 
was lost for the rest. 

Among the Flemish nobles who could lay claim to 
the Chief Stadtholdership, the expectations and wishes 
of the nation were divided between Count Egmont and 
the Prince of Orange, who were alike qualified for this 
high dignity by illustrious birth and personal merits, 
and by an equal share in the affections of the people. 
Their high rank placed them both near to the throne, 
and if the choice of the monarch was to rest on the 
worthiest, it must necessarily fall upon one of these 
two. As, in the course of our history, we shall often 
have occasion to mention both names, the reader cannot 
be too early made acquainted with their characters. 

Wilham I., Prince of Orange, was descended from 
the princely German house of Nassau, which had 
already flourished eight centuries, had long disputed 
the preeminence with Austria, and had given one 
emperor to Germany. Besides several extensive do- 
mains in the Netherlands, which made him a citizen 
of this repubhc and a vassal of the Spanish monarchy, 
he possessed also in France the independent prince- 
dom of Orange. Wilham was born in the year 1533, 
at Dillenburg, in the country of Nassau, of a Countess 
Stolberg. His father, the Count of Nassau, of the 
same name, had embraced the Protestant religion, and 
caused his son also to be educated in it ; but Charles 
v., who early formed an attachment for the boy, took 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 53 

him when quite young to his court, and had him 
brought up in the Eomish Church. This monarch, 
who already in the child discovered the future great- 
ness of the man, kept him nine years about his per- 
son, thought him worthy of his personal instruction in 
the affairs of government, and honoured him with a 
confidence beyond his years. He alone was permitted 
to remain in the emperor's presence when he gave 
audience to foreign ambassadors — a proof that, even 
as a boy, he had already begun to merit the surname 
of the Silent. The emperor was not ashamed even to 
confess openly, on one occasion, that this young man 
had often made suggestions which would have escaped 
his own sagacity. What expectations might not be 
formed of the intellect of a man who was disciphned 
in such a school. 

William was twenty-three years old when Charles 
abdicated the government, and had already received 
from the latter two public marks of the highest 
esteem. The emperor had entrusted to him, in pref- 
erence to all the nobles of his court, the honour- 
able office of conveying to his brother Ferdinand the 
imperial crown. When the Duke of Savoy, who com- 
manded the imperial army in the Netherlands, was 
called away to Italy by the exigency of his domestic 
affairs, the emperor appointed him commander-in- 
chief against the united representations of his mili- 
tary council, who declared it altogether hazardous to 
oppose so young a tyro in arms to the experienced 
generals of France. Absent, and unrecommended by 
any, he was preferred by the monarch to the laurel- 
crowned band of his heroes, and the result gave him 
no cause to repent of his choice. 

The marked favour which the prince had enjoyed 
with the father was in itself a sufficient ground for his 
exclusion from the confidence of the son. Philip, it 
appears, had laid it down for himself as a rule to 



54 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

avenge the wrongs of the Spanish nobility for the 
preference which Charles Y. had on all important 
occasions shown to his Flemish nobles. Still stronger, 
however, were the secret motives which alienated him 
from the prince. Wilham of Orange was one of those 
lean and pale men who, according to Caesar's words, 
" sleep not at night, and think too much," and before 
whom the most fearless spirits quail. The calm tran- 
quillity of a never-varying countenance concealed a 
busy, ardent soul, w^hich never ruffled even the veil 
behind which it worked, and was alike inaccessible 
to artifice and love; a versatile, formidable, indefati- 
gable mind, soft, and ductile enough to be instantane- 
ously moulded into all forms ; guarded enough to lose 
itself in none; and strong enough to endure every 
vicissitude of fortune. A greater master in reading 
and in winning men's hearts never existed than Will- 
iam. Not that, after the fashion of courts, his hps 
avowed a servility to which his proud heart gave the 
lie ; but because he was neither too sparing nor too 
lavish of the marks of his esteem, and through a skil- 
ful economy of the favours which mostly bind men, 
he increased his real stock in them. The fruits of his 
meditation were as perfect as they were slowly formed ; 
his resolves were as steadily and indomitably accom- 
plished as they were long in maturing. No obstacles 
could defeat the plan which he had once adopted as 
the best ; no accidents frustrated it, for they all had 
been foreseen before they actually occurred. High as 
his feelings were raised above terror and joy, they 
were, nevertheless, subject in the same degree to fear ; 
but his fear was earlier than the danger, and he was 
calm in tumult because he had trembled in repose. 
William lavished his gold with a profuse hand, but he 
was a niggard of his movements. The hours of repast 
were the sole hours of relaxation, but these were 
exclusively devoted to his heart, his family, and his 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 55 

friends ; this the modest deduction he allowed himself 
from the cares of his country. Here his brow was 
cleared with wine, seasoned by temperance and a 
cheerful disposition; and no serious cares were per- 
mitted to enter this recess of enjoyment. His house- 
hold was magnificent ; the splendour of a numerous 
retinue, the number and respectabihty of those who 
surrounded his person, made his habitation resemble 
the court of a sovereign prince. A sumptuous hospi- 
tality, that master-spell of demagogues, was the god- 
dess of his palace. Foreign princes and ambassadors 
found here a fitting reception and entertainment, which 
surpassed all that luxurious Belgium could elsewhere 
offer. A humble submissiveness to the government 
bought off the blame and suspicion which this munifi- 
cence might have thrown on his intentions. But this 
hberahty secured for him the affections of the people, 
whom nothing gTatified so much as to see the riches 
of their country displayed before admiring foreigners, 
and the high pinnacle of fortune on which he stood 
enhanced the value of the courtesy to which he con- 
descended. No one, probably, was better fitted by 
nature for the leader of a conspiracy than WiUiam the 
Silent. A comprehensive and intuitive glance into 
the past, the present, and the future ; the talent for 
improving every favourable opportunity ; a command- 
ing influence over the minds of men, vast schemes 
which only when viewed from a distance show form 
and symmetry ; and bold calculations which were 
wound up in the long chain of futurity ; all these 
faculties he possessed, and kept, moreover, under the 
control of that free and enhghtened virtue which 
moves with firm step even on the very edge of the 
abyss. 

A man Hke this might at other times have remained 
unfathomed by his whole generation ; but not so by 
the distrustful spuit of the age in which he Kved. 



56 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

Philip II. saw quickly and deeply into a character 
which, among good ones, most resembled his own. If 
he had not seen through him so clearly his distrust 
of a man, in whom were united nearly all the qualities 
which he prized highest and could best appreciate, 
would be quite inexplicable. But William had another 
and still more important point of contact with Philip 
II. He had learned his policy from the same master, 
and had become, it was to be feared, a more apt scholar. 
Not by making Machiavelli's " Prince " his study, but 
by having enjoyed the living instruction of a monarch 
who reduced the book to practice, had he become versed 
in the perilous arts by which thrones rise and fall. In 
him Philip had to deal with an antagonist who was 
armed against his policy, and who in a good cause 
could also command the resources of a bad one. And 
it was exactly this last circumstance which accounts 
for his having hated this man so implacably above all 
others of his day, and his having had so supernatural 
a dread of him. 

The suspicion which already attached to the prince 
was increased by the doubts which were entertained of 
his religious bias. So long as the emperor, his bene- 
factor, lived, William believed in the Pope ; but it was 
feared, with good ground, that the predilection for the 
reformed religion, which had been imparted into his 
young heart, had never entirely left it. Whatever 
church he may at certain periods of his life have pre- 
ferred, each might console itself with the reflection that 
none other possessed him more entirely. In later years 
he went over to Calvinism with almost as little scruple 
as in his early childhood he deserted the Lutheran pro- 
fession for the Eomish. He defended the rights of the 
Protestants rather than their opinions against Spanish 
oppression ; not their faith, but their wrongs, had made 
him their brother. 

These general grounds for suspicion appeared to be 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 57 

justified by a discovery of his real intentions which 
accident had made. William had remained in France 
as hostage for the peace of Chateau-Cambray, in con- 
cluding which he had borne a part ; and here, through 
the imprudence of Henry II., who imagined he spoke 
with a confidant of the King of Spain, he became 
acquainted with a secret plot which the French and 
Spanish courts had formed against Protestants of both 
kingdoms. The prince hastened to communicate this 
important discovery to his friends in Brussels, whom 
it so nearly concerned, and the letters which he ex- 
changed on the subject fell, unfortunately, into the 
hands of the King of Spain. Philip was less surprised 
at this decisive disclosure of William's sentiments than 
incensed at the disappointment of his scheme ; and the 
Spanish nobles, who had never forgiven the prince that 
moment, when in the last act of his life the greatest of 
emperors leaned upon his shoulders, did not neglect 
this favourable opportunity of finally ruining, in the 
good opinion of their king, the betrayer of a state secret. 
Of a Lineage no less noble than that of William was 
Lamoral, Count Egmont and Prince of Gavre, a descend- 
ant of the Dukes of Guelders, whose martial courage 
had wearied out the arms of Austria. His family was 
highly distinguished in the annals of the country ; one 
of his ancestors had, under Maximilian, already filled 
the office of Stadtholder over Holland. Egmont's 
marriage with the Duchess Sabina of Bavaria reflected 
additional lustre on the splendour of his birth, and 
made him powerful through the greatness of this alli- 
ance. Charles V. had, in the year 1516, conferred on 
him at Utrecht the order of the Golden Fleece ; the 
wars of this emperor were the school of his military 
genius, and the battle of St. Quentin and Gravelines 
made him the hero of his age. Every blessing of peace, 
for which a commercial people feel most grateful, 
brought to mind the remembrance of the victory by 



$8 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

which it was accelerated, and Flemish pride, like a 
fond mother, exulted over the illustrious son of their 
country, who had filled all Europe with admiration. 
Nine children, who grew up under the eyes of their 
fellow citizens, multiplied and drew closer the ties be- 
tween him and his fatherland, and the people's grateful 
affection for the father was kept alive by the sight of 
those who were dearest to him. Every appearance 
of Egmont in public was a triumphal procession ; every 
eye which was fastened upon him recounted his history ; 
his deeds lived in the plaudits of his companions-in- 
arms ; at the games of chivalry mothers pointed him 
out to their children. Affability, a noble and courteous 
demeanour, the amiable virtues of chivalry, adorned 
and graced his merits. His liberal soul shone forth on 
his open brow ; his frank-heartedness managed his 
secrets no better than his benevolence did his estate, 
and a thought was no sooner his than it was the prop- 
erty of all. His religion was gentle and humane, but 
not very enlightened, because it derived its light from 
the heart and not from his understanding. Egmont 
possessed more of conscience than of fixed principles ; 
his head had not given him a code of its own, but had 
merely learnt it by rote ; the mere name of any action, 
therefore, was often with him sufficient for its condem- 
nation. In his judgment men were wholly bad or 
wholly good, and had not something bad or something 
good ; in this system of morals there was no middle 
term between vice and virtue ; and consequently a 
single good trait often decided his opinion of men. 
Egmont united all the eminent qualities which form 
the hero ; he was a better soldier than the Prince of 
Orange, but far inferior to him as a statesman ; the 
latter saw the world as it really was ; Egmont viewed 
it in the magic mirror of an imagination that embel- 
lished all that it reflected. Men, whom fortune has 
surprised with a reward for which they can find no 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 59 

adequate ground in their actions, are, for the most part, 
very apt to forget the necessary connection between 
cause and effect, and to insert in the natural conse- 
quences of things a higher miraculous power to which, 
as Csesar to his fortune, they at last insanely trust. 
Such a character was Egmont. Intoxicated with the 
idea of his own merits, which the love and gratitude of 
his fellow citizens had exaggerated, he staggered on in 
this sweet reverie as in a delightful world of dreams. 
He feared not, because he trusted to the deceitful 
pledge which destiny had given him of her favour, in 
the general love of the people ; and he believed in its 
justice because he himself was prosperous. Even the 
most terrible experience of Spanish perfidy could not 
afterward eradicate this confidence from his soul, and 
on the scaffold itself his latest feeling was hope. A 
tender fear for his family kept his patriotic courage 
fettered by lower duties. Because he trembled for 
property and life he could not venture much for the 
republic. William of Orange broke with the throne 
because its arbitrary power was offensive to his pride ; 
Egmont was vain, and therefore valued the favours of 
the monarch. The former was a citizen of the world ; 
Egmont had never been more than a Fleming. 

Phihp II. still stood indebted to the hero of St. 
Quentin, and the supreme stadtholdership of the 
Netherlands appeared the only appropriate reward 
for such great services. Birth and high station, the 
voice of the nation and personal abilities, spoke as 
loudly for Egmont as for Orange; and if the latter 
was to be passed by it seemed that the former alone 
could supplant him. 

Two such competitors, so equal in merit, might 
have embarrassed Philip in his choice if he had ever 
seriously thought of selecting either of them for the 
appointment. But the preeminent qualities by which 
they supported their claim to this office were the very 



6o REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

cause of their rejection ; and it was precisely the 
ardent desire of the nation for their election to it 
that irrevocably annulled their title to the appoint- 
ment. Philip's purpose would not be answered by a 
stadtholder in the Netherlands who could command the 
good-will and the energies of the people. Egmont's 
descent from the Duke of Guelders made him an 
hereditary foe of the house of Spain, and it seemed 
impolitic to place the supreme power in the hands of 
a man to whom the idea might occur of revenging on 
the son of the oppressor the oppression of his ancestor. 
The slight put on their favourites could give no just 
offence either to the nation or to themselves, for it 
might be pretended that the king passed over both 
because he would not show a preference to either. 

The disappointment of his hopes of gaining the 
regency did not deprive the Prince of Orange of all 
expectation of establishing more firmly his influence 
in the Netherlands. Among the other candidates for 
this office was also Christina, Duchess of Lorraine, 
and aunt of the king, who, as mediatrix of the peace 
of Chateau-Cambray, had rendered important service 
to the crown. Wilham aimed at the hand of her 
daughter, and he hoped to promote his suit by actively 
interposing his good offices for the mother ; but he 
did not reflect that through this very intercession 
he ruined her cause. The Duchess Christina was re- 
jected, not so much for the reason alleged, namely, the 
dependence of her territories on France made her an 
object of suspicion to the Spanish court, as because 
she was acceptable to the people of the Netherlands 
and the Prince of Orange. 

MARGARET OF PARMA REGENT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

While the general expectation was on the stretch 
as to whom the future destinies of the provinces would 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 6i 

be committed, there appeared ou the frontiers of the 
country the Duchess Margaret of Parma, having been 
summoned by the king from Italy to assume the 
government. 

Margaret was a natural daughter of Charles V. and 
of a noble Flemish lady named Vangeest, and born in 
1522. Out of regard for the honour of her mother's 
house she was at first educated in obscurity ; but her 
mother, who possessed more vanity than honour, was 
not very anixous to preserve the secret of her origin, 
and a princely education betrayed the daughter of the 
emperor. While yet a child she was entrusted to the 
Kegent Margaret, her great-aunt, to be brought up at 
Brussels under her eye. This guardian she lost in her 
eighth year, and the care of her education devolved on 
Queen Mary of Hungary, the successor of Margaret in 
the regency. Her father had already affianced her, 
while yet in her fourth year, to a Prince of Ferrara ; 
but this alliance being subsequently dissolved, she 
was betrothed to Alexander de Medicis, the new 
Duke of Florence, which marriage was, after the vic- 
torious return of the emperor from Africa, actually 
consummated in Naples. In the first year of this 
unfortunate union, a violent death removed from her 
a husband who could not love her, and for the third 
time her hand was disposed of to serve the policy of 
her father. Octavius Farnese, a prince of thirteen 
years of age and nephew of Paul III., obtained, with 
her person, the Duchies of Parma and Piacenza as her 
portion. Thus, by a strange destiny, Margaret at the 
age of maturity was contracted to a boy, as in the 
years of infancy she had been sold to a man. Her 
disposition, which was anything but feminine, made 
this last alliance still more unnatural, for her taste 
and inclinations were masculine, and the whole tenor 
of her life belied her sex. After the example of her 
instructress, the Queen of Hungary, and her great- 



62 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

aunt, the Duchess Mary of Burgundy, who met her 
death in this favourite sport, she was passionately 
fond of hunting, and had acquired in this pursuit such 
bodily vigour that few men were better able to undergo 
its hardships and fatigues. 

Her gait itself was so devoid of grace that one was 
far more tempted to take her for a disguised man than 
for a masculine woman ; and Nature, whom she had 
derided by thus transgressing the limits of her sex, 
revenged itself finally upon her by a disease peculiar 
to men — the gout. 

These unusual qualities were crowned by a monk- 
ish superstition which was infused into her mind by 
Ignatius Loyola, her confessor and teacher. Among 
the charitable works and penances with which she 
mortified her vanity, one of the most remarkable was 
that, during Passion Week, she yearly washed with 
her own hands the feet of a number of poor men (who 
were most strictly forbidden to cleanse themselves 
beforehand), waited on them at table like a servant, 
and sent them away with rich presents. 

Nothing more is requisite than this last feature 
in her character to account for the preference which 
the king gave her over all her rivals ; but his choice 
was at the same time justified by excellent reasons of 
state. Margaret was born and also educated in the 
Netherlands. She had spent her early youth among the 
people, and had acquired much of their national man- 
ners. Two regents (Duchess Margaret and Queen 
Mary of Hungary), under whose eyes she had grown 
up, had gradually initiated her into the maxims by 
which this peculiar people might be most easily 
governed ; and they would also serve her as models. 
She did not want either in talents ; and possessed, 
moreover, a particular turn for business, which she 
had acquired from her instructors, and had afterward 
carried to greater perfection in the Italian school. 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 63 

The Netherlands had been for a number of years 
accustomed to female government ; and Philip hoped, 
perhaps, that the sharp iron of tyranny which he was 
about to use against them would cut more gently if 
wielded by the hands of a woman. Some regard for 
his father, who at the time was still living, and was 
much attached to Margaret, may have in a measure, as 
it is asserted, influenced this choice; as it is also 
probable that the king wished to obhge the Duke 
of Parma, through this mark of attention to his wife, 
and thus to compensate for denying a request which 
he was just then compelled to refuse him. As the terri- 
tories of the duchess were surrounded by Philip's 
Italian states, and at all times exposed to his arms, he 
could, with the less danger, entrust the supreme power 
into her hands. For his full security her son, Alexan- 
der Farnese, was to remain at his court as a pledge 
for her loyalty. All these reasons were alone suf- 
ficiently weighty to turn the king's decision in her 
favour; but they became irresistible when supported 
by the Bishop of Arras and the Duke of Alva. The 
latter, as it appears, because he hated or envied all 
the other competitors ; the former, because even then, 
in all probability, he anticipated from the wavering 
disposition of this princess abundant gratification for 
his ambition. 

Philip received the new regent on the frontiers with 
a splendid cortege, and conducted her with magnificent 
pomp to Ghent, where the States General had been 
convoked. As he did not intend to return soon to the 
Netherlands, he desired, before he left them, to gratify 
the nation for once by holding a solemn Diet, and 
thus giving a solemn sanction and the force of law to 
his previous regulations. For the last time he showed 
himself to his Netherlandish people, whose destinies 
were from henceforth to be dispensed from a mysteri- 
ous distance. To enhance the splendour of this solemn 



64 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

day, Philip invested eleven knights with the Order of 
the Golden Fleece, his sister being seated on a chair 
near himself, while he showed her to the nation as 
their future ruler. All the grievances of the people, 
touching the edicts, the Inquisition, the detention of 
the Spanish troops, the taxes, and the illegal introduc- 
tion of foreigners into the offices and administration 
of the country were brought forward in this Diet, and 
were hotly discussed by both parties ; some of them 
were skilfully evaded, or apparently removed, others 
arbitrarily repelled. As the king was unacquainted 
with the language of the country, he addressed the 
nation through the mouth of the Bishop of Arras, 
recounted to them with vainglorious ostentation all 
the benefits of his government, assured them of his 
favour for the future, and once more recommended to 
the estates in the most earnest maimer the preservation 
of the Catholic faith and the extirpation of heresy. 
The Spanish troops, he promised, should in a few 
months evacuate the Netherlands, if only they would 
allow him time to recover from the numerous burdens 
of the last war, in order that he might be enabled to 
collect the means for paying the arrears of these troops ; 
the fundamental laws of the nation should remain 
inviolate, the imposts should not be grievously bur- 
densome, and the Inquisition should administer its 
duties with justice and moderation. In the choice of 
a supreme Stadtholder, he added, he had especially 
consulted the wishes of the nation, and had decided 
for a native of the country, who had been brought 
up in their manners and customs, and was attached 
to them by a love to her native^ land. He exhorted 
them, therefore, to show their gratitude by honouring 
his choice, and obeying his sister, the duchess, as 
himself. Should, he concluded, unexpected obstacles 
oppose his return, he would send in his place his son, 
Prince Charles, who should reside in Brussels. 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 65 

A few members of this assembly, more courageous 
than the rest, once more ventured on a final effort for 
liberty of conscience. Every people, they argued, 
ought to be treated according to their natural charac- 
ter, as every individual must in accordance to his 
bodily constitution. Thus, for example, the south 
may be considered happy under a certain degree of 
constraint which would press intolerably on the north. 
Never, they added, would the Flemings consent to a 
yoke under which, perhaps, the Spaniards bowed 
with patience, and rather than submit to it would 
they undergo any extremity if it was sought to force 
such a yoke upon them. This remonstrance was 
supported by some of the king's counsellors, who 
strongly urged the poHcy of mitigating the rigour of 
religious edicts. But Philip remained inexorable. Bet- 
ter not reign at all, was his answer, than reign over 
heretics ! 

According to an arrangement already made by 
Charles V., three councils or chambers were added to 
the regent, to assist her in the administration of state 
affairs. As long as Philip was himself present in the 
Netherlands these courts had lost much of their power, 
and the functions of the first of them, the state council, 
were almost entirely suspended. Now that he quitted 
the reins of government, they recovered their former 
importance. In the state council, which was to de- 
liberate upon war and peace, and security against 
external foes, sat the Bishop of Arras, the Prince of 
Orange, Count Egmont, the President of the Privy 
Council, Viglius Van Zuichem Van Aytta, and the 
Count of Barlaimont, President of the Chamber of 
Finance. All knights of the Golden Fleece, all privy 
counsellors and counsellors of finance, as also the 
members of the great senate at Mahnes, which had 
been subjected by Charles V. to the Privy Council in 
Brussels, had a seat and vote in the Council of State, 



66 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

if expressly invited by the regent. The management 
of the royal revenues and crown lands was vested in 
the Chamber of Finance, and the Privy Council was 
occupied with the administration of justice, and the 
civil regulation of the country, and issued all letters 
of grace and pardon. The governments of the prov- 
inces which had fallen vacant were either filled up 
afresh or the former governors were confirmed. Count 
Egmont received Flanders and Artois ; the Prince of 
Orange, Holland, Zealand, Utrecht, and West Fries- 
land ; the Count of Arenberg, East Friesland, Overys- 
sel, and Groningen ; the Count of Mansfeld, Luxemburg ; 
Barlaimont, Namur ; the Marquis of Bergen, Hainault, 
Chateau-Cambray, and Valenciennes ; the Baron of 
Montigny, Tournay and its dependencieSo Other 
provinces were given to some who have less claim 
to our attention. Philip of Montmorency, Count of 
Hoorn, who had been succeeded by the Count of 
Megen in the government of Guelders and Ziitphen, 
was confirmed as admiral of the Belgian navy. Every 
governor of a province was at the same time a knight 
of the Golden Fleece and member of the Council of 
State. Each had, in the province over which he 
presided, the command of the military force which 
protected it, the superintendence of the civil adminis- 
tration and the judicature ; the governor of Flanders 
alone excepted, who was not allowed to interfere with 
the administration of justice. Brabant alone was 
placed under the immediate jurisdiction of the regent, 
who, according to custom, chose Brussels for her 
constant residence. The induction of the Prince of 
Orange into his governments ^^as, properly speaking, 
an infraction of the constitution, since he was a for- 
eigner; but several estates which he either himself 
possessed in the provinces, or managed as guardian of 
his son, his long residence in the country, and above 
all the unlimited confidence the nation reposed in him. 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 67 

gave him substantial claims in default of a real title 
of citizenship. 

The military force of the Low Countries consisted, 
in its full complement, of three thousand horse. At 
present it did not much exceed two thousand, and was 
divided into fourteen squadrons, over which, besides 
the governors of the provinces, the Duke of Arschot, 
the Counts of Hoogstraten, Bossu, Koeux, and Brede- 
rode held the chief command. This cavalry, which 
was scattered through all the seventeen provinces, was 
only to be called out on sudden emergencies. Insuffi- 
cient as it was for any great undertaking, it was, 
nevertheless, fully adequate for the maintenance of 
internal order. Its courage had been approved in 
former wars, and the fame of its valour was diffused 
through the whole of Europe. In addition to this 
cavaby it was also proposed to levy a body of infantry, 
but hitherto the states had refused their consent to it. 
Of foreign troops there were still some German regi- 
ments in the service, which were waiting for their pay. 
The four thousand Spaniards, respecting whom so 
many complaints had been made, were under two 
Spanish generals, Mendoza and Eomero, and were in 
garrison in the frontier towns. 

Among the Belgian nobles whom the king especially 
distinguished in these new appointments, the names of 
Count Egmont and Wilham of Orange stand conspicu- 
ous. However inveterate his hatred was of both, and 
particularly of the latter, Philip nevertheless gave them 
these public marks of his favour, because his scheme 
of vengeance was not yet fully ripe, and the people 
were enthusiastic in their devotion to them. The 
estates of both were declared exempt from taxes, the 
most lucrative governments were entrusted to them, 
and by offering them the command of the Spaniards 
whom he left behind in the country the king flattered 
them with a confidence which he was very far from 



68 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

really reposing in them. But at the very time when 
he obliged the prince with these pubhc marks of his 
esteem he privately inflicted the most cruel injury on 
him. Apprehensive lest an alliance with the power- 
ful house of Lorraine might encourage this suspected 
vassal to bolder measures, he thwarted the negotiation 
for a marriage between him and a princess of that 
family, and crushed his hopes on the very eve of their 
accomphshment, — an injury which the prince never 
forgave. Nay, his hatred to the prince on one occa- 
sion even got completely the better of his natural 
dissimulation, and seduced him into a step in which 
we entirely lose sight of Philip II. When he was 
about to embark at Flushing, and the nobles of the 
country attended him to the shore, he so far forgot 
himself as roughly to accost the prince, and openly 
to accuse him of being the author of the Flemish 
troubles. The prince answered temperately that w^hat 
had happened had been done by the provinces of their 
own suggestion and on legitimate grounds. No, said 
Philip, seizing his hand, and shaking it violently, not 
the provinces, but You ! You ! You ! The prince stood 
mute with astonishment, and without waiting for the 
king's embarkation, wished him a safe journey and 
went back to the town. 

Thus the enmity which Wilham had long harboured 
in his breast against the oppressor of a free people was 
now rendered irreconcilable by private hatred ; and 
this double incentive accelerated the great enterprise 
which tore from the Spanish crown seven of its 
brightest jewels. 

PhiHp had greatly deviated from his true character 
in taking so gracious a leave of the Netherlands. The 
legal form of a diet, his promise to remove the Span- 
iards from the frontiers, the consideration of the 
popular wishes, which had led him to fill the most 
important offices of the country with the favourites 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 69 

of the people, and, finally, the sacrifice which he made 
to the constitution in withdrawing the Count of Feria 
from the Council of State, were marks of condescension 
of which his magnanimity was never again guilty. 
But in fact he never stood in greater need of the 
good-will of the states, that with their aid he might, 
if possible, clear off the great burden of debt which 
was still attached to the Netherlands from the 
former war. He hoped, therefore, by propitiating 
them through smaller sacrifices to win approval of 
more important usurpations. He marked his depar- 
ture with grace, for he knew in what hands he left 
them. The frightful scenes of death which he in- 
tended for this unhappy people were not to stain 
the splendour of majesty which, hke the Godhead, 
marks its course only with beneficence; that terrible 
distinction was reserved for his representatives. The 
estabhshment of the Council of Statp was, however, 
intended rather to flatter the vanity of the Belgian 
nobihty than to impart to them any real influence. 
The historian Strada (who drew his information with 
regard to the regent from her own papers) has pre- 
served a few articles of the secret instructions which 
the Spanish ministry gave her. Amongst other things 
it is there stated if she observed that the councils were 
divided by factions, or, what would be far worse, pre- 
pared by private conferences before the session, and in 
league with one another, then she was to prorogue all 
the chambers and dispose arbitrarily of the disputed 
articles in a more select council or committee. In 
this select committee, which was called the Consulta, 
sat the Archbishop of Arras, the President Viglius, 
and the Count of Barlaimont. She was to act in the 
same manner if emergent cases required a prompt 
decision. Had this arrangement not been the work 
of an arbitrary despotism it would perhaps have been 
justified by sound policy, and republican liberty itself 



70 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

might have tolerated it. In great assembhes where 
many private interests and passions cooperate, where a 
numerous audience presents so great a temptation to 
the vanity of the orator, and parties often assail one 
another with unmannerly warmth, a decree can seldom 
be passed with that sobriety and mature dehberation 
which, if the members are properly selected, a smaller 
body readily admits of. In a numerous body of men, 
too, there is, we must suppose, a greater number of 
limited than of enlightened intellects, who through 
their equal right of vote frequently turn the majority 
on the side of ignorance. A second maxim, which the 
regent was especially to observe, was to select the very 
members of council who had voted against any decree 
to carry it into execution. By this means not only 
would the people be kept in ignorance of the origi- 
nators of such a law, but the private quarrels also of 
the members would be restrained, and a greater free- 
dom ensured in voting in compHance with the wishes 
of the court. 

In spite of all these precautions, Philip would never 
ha,ve been able to leave the Netherlands with a quiet 
mind so long as he knew that the chief power in the 
Council of State, and the obedience of the provinces, 
were in the hands of the suspected nobles. In order, 
therefore, to appease his fears from this quarter, and 
also at the same time to assure himself of the fidelity 
of the regent, he subjected her, and through her all the 
affairs of the judicature, to the higher control of the 
Bishop of Arras. In this single individual he pos- 
sessed an adequate counterpoise to the most dreaded 
cabal. To him, as to an infallible oracle of majesty, 
the duchess was referred, and in him there watched a 
stern supervisor of her administration. Among all his 
contemporaries Granvella was the only one whom 
Philip II. appears to have excepted from his universal 
distrust ; as long as he knew that this man was in 



REVOLT OF- THE NETHERLANDS 71 

Brussels lie could sleep calmly in Segovia. He left 
the Netherlands in September, 1559, was saved from 
a storm which sank his fleet, and landed at Laredo 
in Biscay, and in his gloomy joy thanked the Deity 
who had preserved him by a detestable vow. In the 
hands of a priest and of a woman was placed the dan- 
gerous helm of the ^Netherlands ; and the dastardly 
tyrant escaped in his oratory at Madrid the suppHca- 
tions, the complaints, and the curses of the people. 



BOOK II. 

CARDINAL CtEANVELLA. 

Anthony Perenot, Bishop of Arras, subsequently 
Archbishop of Malines, and Metropolitan of all the 
Netherlands, who, under the name of Cardinal Gran- 
vella, has been immortalised by the hatred of his 
contemporaries, was born in the year 1516, at Besan- 
9on in Burgundy. His father, Nicolaus Perenot, the 
son of a blacksmith, had risen by his own merits to 
be the private secretary of Margaret, Duchess of Savoy, 
at that time regent of the Netherlands. In this post 
he was noticed for his habits of business by Charles 
v., who took him into his own service and employed 
him in several important negotiations. For twenty 
years he was a member of the emperor's cabinet, and 
filled the offices of privy counsellor and keeper of the 
king's seal, and shared in all the state secrets of that 
monarch. He acquired a large fortune. His honours, 
his influence, and his political knowledge were inher- 
ited by his son, Anthony Perenot, who in his early 
years gave proofs of the great capacity which subse- 
quently opened to him so distinguished a career. An- 
thony had cultivated at several colleges the talents 
with which nature had so lavishly endowed him, and 
in some respects had an advantage over his father. 
He soon showed that his own abilities were sufficient 
to maintain the advantageous position which the merits 
of another had procured him. He was twenty-four 
years old when the emperor sent him as his plenipo- 
tentiary to the ecclesiastical council of Trent, where he 

72 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 73 

delivered the first speciraen of that eloquence which 
in the sequel gave him so complete an ascendency over 
two kings. Charles employed him in several difficult 
embassies, the duties of which he fulfilled to the satis- 
faction of his sovereign, and when finally that Emperor 
resigned the sceptre to his son he made that costly 
present complete by giving him a minister who could 
help him to wield it. 

Granvella opened his new career at once with the 
greatest masterpiece of pohtical genius, in passing so 
easily from the favour of such a father into equal con- 
sideration with such a son. And he soon proved him- 
self deserving of it. At the secret negotiations of 
which the Duchess of Lorraine had, in 1558, been the 
medium between the French and Spanish ministers 
at Peronne, he planned, conjointly with the Cardinal 
of Lorraine, that conspiracy against the Protestants 
which was afterward matured, but also betrayed, at 
Chateau-Cambray, where Perenot likewise assisted in 
effecting the so-called peace. 

A deeply penetrating, comprehensive intellect, an un- 
usual facility in conducting great and intricate affairs, 
and the most extensive learning, were wonderfully 
united in this man with persevering industry and never- 
wearying patience, while his enterprising genius was 
associated with thoughtful mechanical regularity. Day 
and night the state found him vigilant and collected ; 
the most important and the most insignificant things 
were ahke weighed by him with scrupulous attention. 
Not unfrequently he employed five secretaries at one 
time, dictating to them in different languages, of which 
he is said to have spoken seven. What his penetrat- 
ing mind had slowly matured acquired in his lips both 
force and grace, and truth, set forth by his persuasive 
eloquence, irresistibly carried away all hearers. He 
was tempted by none of the passions which make 
slaves of most men. His integiity was incorruptible. 



74 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

With shrewd penetration he saw through the disposi- 
tion of his roaster, and could read in his features his 
whole train of thought, and, as it were, the approaching 
form in the shadow which outran it. With an artifice 
rich in resources he came to the aid of Philip's more 
inactive mind, formed into perfect thought his master's 
crude ideas while they yet hung on his lips, and liber- 
ally allowed him the glory of the invention. Granvella 
understood the difficult and useful art of depreciating 
his own talents ; of making his own genius the seeming 
slave of another ; thus he ruled while he concealed his 
sway. In this manner only could Philip II. be gov- 
erned. Content with a silent but real power, Granvella 
did not grasp insatiably at new and outward marks of 
it, which with lesser minds are ever the most coveted 
objects ; but every new distinction seemed to sit upon 
him as easily as the oldest. No ,wonder if such ex- 
traordinary endowments had alone gained him the 
favour of his master ; but a large and valuable treasure 
of political secrets and experiences, which the active 
life of Charles V. had accumulated, and had deposited 
in the mind of this man, made him indispensable to 
his successor. Self-sufficient as the latter was, and 
accustomed to confide in his own understanding, his 
timid and crouching policy was fain to lean on a supe- 
rior mind, and to aid its own irresolution not only by 
precedent but also by the influence and example of an- 
other. No pohtical matter which concerned the royal 
interest, even when Philip himself was in the Nether- 
lands, was decided without the intervention of Gran- 
vella ; and when the king embarked for Spain he made 
the new regent the same valuable present of the min- 
ister which he himself had received from the emperor, 
his father. 

Common as it is for despotic princes to bestow 
unlimited confidence on the creatures whom they have 
raised from the dust, and of whose greatness they 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 75 

themselves are, in a measure, the creators, the present 
is no ordinary instance ; preeminent must have been 
the qualities which could so far conquer the selfish 
reserve of such a character as Philip's as to gain his 
confidence, nay, even to win him into familiarity. The 
shghtest ebullition of the most allowable self-respect, 
which might have tempted him to assert, however 
slightly, his claim to any idea which the king had 
once ennobled as his own, would have cost him his 
whole influence. He might gratify without restraint 
the lowest passions of voluptuousness, of rapacity, and 
of revenge, but the only one in which he really took 
delight, the sweet consciousness of his own superiority 
and power, he was constrained carefully to conceal 
from the suspicious glance of the despot. He volun- 
tarily disclaimed all the eminent qualities, which were 
already his own, in order, as it were, to receive them a 
second time from the generosity of the king. His hap- 
piness seemed to flow from no other source, no other 
person could have a claim upon his gratitude. The 
purple, which was sent to him from Eome, was not 
assumed until the royal permission reached him from 
Spain ; by laying it down on the steps of the throne he 
appeared, in a measure, to receive it first from the 
hands of majesty. Less politic, Alva erected a trophy 
in Antwerp, and inscribed his own name under the vic- 
tory, which he had won as the servant of the crown — 
but Alva carried with him to the grave the displeasure 
of his master. He had invaded with audacious hand 
the royal prerogative by drawing immediately at the 
fountain of immortality. 

Three times Granvella changed his master, and three 
times he succeeded in rising to the highest favour. With 
the same facility with which he had guided the settled 
pride of an autocrat, and the sly egotism of a despot, he 
knew how to manage the delicate vanity of a woman. 
His business between himself and the regent, even 



76 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

when they were in the same house, was, for the most 
part, transacted by the medium of notes, a custom 
which draws its date from the times of Augustus and 
Tiberius. When the regent was in any perplexity 
these notes were interchanged from hour to hour. He 
probably adopted this expedient in the hope of eluding 
the watchful jealousy of the nobility, and concealing 
from them, in part at least, his influence over the 
regent. Perhaps, too, he also believed that by this 
means his advice would become more permanent ; and, 
in case of need, this written testimony would be at 
hand to shield him from blame. But the vigilance of 
the nobles made this caution vain, and it was soon 
known in all the provinces that nothing was deter- 
mined upon without the minister's advice. 

Granvella possessed all the qualities requisite for a 
perfect statesman in a monarchy governed by despotic 
principles, but was absolutely unqualified for republics 
which are governed by kings. Educated between the 
throne and the confessional, he knew of no other rela- 
tion between man and man than that of rule and 
subjection; and the innate consciousness of his own 
superiority gave him a contempt for others. His policy 
wanted pliability, the only virtue which was here in- 
dispensable to its success. He was naturally overbear- 
ing and insolent, and the royal authority only gave 
arms to the natural impetuosity of his disposition and 
the imperiousness of his order. He veiled his own 
ambition beneath the interests of the crown, and made 
the breach between the nation and the king incurable, 
because it would render him indispensable to the latter. 
He revenged on the nobility the lowliness of his own 
origin ; and, after the fashion of all those who have 
risen by their own merits, he valued the advantages of 
birth below those by which he had raised himseK to 
distinction. The Protestants saw in him their most 
implacable foe ; to his charge were laid all the burdens 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 77 

which oppressed the country, and they pressed the 
more heavily because they came from him. Nay, he 
was even accused of having brought back to severity 
the milder sentiments to which the urgent remon- 
strances of the provinces had at last disposed the 
monarch. The Netherlands execrated him as the most 
terrible enemy of their liberties, and the originator of 
all the misery which subsequently came upon them. 

1559. PhiHp had evidently left the pro\inces too 
soon. The new measures of the government were still 
strange to the people, and could receive sanction and 
authority from his presence alone ; the new machines 
which he had brought into play required to be kept in 
motion by a dreaded and powerful hand, and to have 
their first movements watched and regulated. He now 
exposed his minister to all the angry passions of the 
people, who no longer felt restrained by the fetters of 
the royal presence ; and he delegated to the weak arm 
of a subject the execution of projects in which majesty 
itself, with all its powerful supports, might have failed. 

The land, indeed, flourished ; and a general prosperity 
appeared to testify to the blessings of the peace which 
had so lately been bestowed upon it. An external 
repose deceived the ey^, for within raged all the ele- 
ments of discord. If the foundations of rehgion totter 
in a country they totter not alone ; the audacity which 
begins with things sacred ends with things profane. 
The successful attack upon the hierarchy had awakened 
a spirit of boldness, and a desire to assail authority in 
general, and to test laws as well as dogmas — duties 
as well as opinions. The fanatical boldness with which 
men had learned to discuss and decide upon the affairs 
of eternity might change its subject matter ; the con- 
tempt for Hfe and property which religious enthusiasm 
had taught could metamorphose timid citizens into 
foolhardy rebels. A female government of nearly forty 
years had given the nation room to assert their liberty ; 



78 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

continual wars, of which the Netherlands had been the 
theatre, had introduced a license with them, and the 
right of the stronger had usurped the place of law and 
order. The provinces were filled with foreign adven- 
turers and fugitives ; generally men bound by no ties 
of country, family, or property, who had brought with 
them from their unhappy homes the seeds of insubordi- 
nation and rebellion. The repeated spectacles of tor- 
ture and of death had rudely burst the tenderer threads 
of moral feehng, and had given an unnatural harshness 
to the national character. 

Still the rebellion would have crouched timorously 
and silently on the ground if it had not found a support 
in the nobility. Charles V. had spoiled the Flemish 
nobles of the Netherlands by making them the partic- 
ipators of his glory, by fostering their national pride, 
by the marked preference he showed for them over 
the Castilian nobles, and by opening an arena to their 
ambition in every part of his empire. In the late war 
with France they had really deserved this preference 
from Phihp ; the advantages which the king reaped 
from the peace of Chateau-Cambray were for the most 
part the fruits of their valour, and they now sensibly 
missed the gratitude on which they had so confidently 
reckoned. Moreover, the separation of the German 
empire from the Spanish monarchy, and the less war- 
like spirit of the new government, had greatly narrowed 
their sphere of action, and, except in their own country, 
little remained for them to gain. And Philip now ap- 
pointed his Spaniards where Charles V. had employed 
the Flemings. All the passions which the preceding 
government had raised and kept employed still sur- 
vived in peace ; and in default of a legitimate object 
these unruly feehngs found, unfortunately, ample scope 
in the grievances of their country. Accordingly, the 
claims and wrongs which had been long supplanted by 
new passions were now drawn from oblivion. By his 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 79 

late appointments the king had satisfied no party ; for 
those even who obtained offices were not much more 
content than those who were entirely passed over, 
because they had calculated on something better than 
they got. William of Orange had received four govern- 
ments (not to reckon some smaller dependencies which, 
taken together, were equivalent to a fifth), but William 
had nourished hopes of Flanders and Brabant. He and 
Count Egmont forgot what had really fallen to their 
share, and only remembered that they had lost the 
regency. The majority of the nobles were either 
plunged into debt by their own extravagance, or had 
willingly enough been drawn into it by the govern- 
ment. Now that they were excluded from the prospect 
of lucrative appointments, they at once saw themselves 
exposed to poverty, which pained them the more sensi- 
bly when they contrasted the splendour of the affluent 
citizens with their own necessities. In the extremities 
to which they were reduced many would have readily 
assisted in the commission even of crimes ; how then 
could they resist the seductive offers of the Calvinists, 
who liberally repaid them for their intercession and 
protection ? Lastly, many whose estates were past 
redemption placed their last hope in a general devasta- 
tion, and stood prepared at the first favourable moment 
to cast the torch of discord into the republic. 

This threatening aspect of the public mind was ren- 
dered still more alarmijig by the unfortunate vicinity 
of France. What Philip dreaded for the provinces was 
there already accomplished. The fate of that kingdom 
prefigured to him the destiny of his Netherlands, and 
the spirit of rebellion found there a seductive example. 
A similar state of things had under Francis I. and 
Henry II. scattered the seeds of innovation in that 
kingdom ; a similar fury of persecution and a like spirit 
of faction had encouraged its growth. Now Huguenots 
and Catholics were struggling in a dubious contest ; 



8o REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

furious parties disorganised the whole monarchy, and 
were violently hurrying this once powerful state to the 
brink of destruction. Here, as there, private interest, 
ambition, and party feeling might veil themselves 
under the names of religion and patriotism, and the 
passions of a few citizens drive the entire nation to 
take up arms. The frontiers of both countries merged 
in Walloon Flanders ; the rebellion might, like an agi- 
tated sea, cast its waves as far as this : would a country 
be closed against it whose language, manners, and char- 
acter wavered betw^een those of France and Belgium ? 
As yet the government had taken no census of its 
Protestant subjects in these countries, but the new sect, 
it was aware, was a vast, compact republic, which ex- 
tended its roots through all the monarchies of Chris- 
tendom, and the slightest disturbance in any of its 
most distant members vibrated to its centre. It was, 
as it were, a chain of threatening volcanoes, which, 
united by subterraneous passages, ignite at the same 
moment with alarming sympathy. The Netherlands 
were, necessarily, open to all nations, because they 
derived their support from all. Was it possible for 
Philip to close a commercial state as easily as he could 
Spain ? If he wished to purify these provinces from 
heresy it was necessary for him to commence by extir- 
pating it in France. 

It was in this state that Granvella found the Nether- 
lands at the beginning of his administration (1560). 

To restore to these countries the uniformity of 
papistry, to break the coordinate power of the nobihty 
and the states, and to exalt the royal authority on the 
ruins of repubhcan freedom, was the great object of 
Spanish policy and the express commission of the 
new minister. But obstacles stood in the way of 
its accomplishment ; to conquer these demanded the 
invention of new resources, the application of new 
machinery. The Inquisition, indeed, and the religious 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 8i 

edicts appeared sufficient to check the contagion of 
heresy; but the latter required superintendence, and 
the former able instruments for its now extended 
jurisdiction. The Church constitution continued the 
same as it had been in earher times, when the prov- 
inces were less populous, when the Chui'ch still enjoyed 
universal repose, and could be more easily overlooked 
and controlled. A succession of several centuries, 
which changed the whole interior form of the prov- 
inces, had left the form of the hierarchy unaltered, 
which, moreover, was protected fi'om the arbitrary 
will of its ruler by the particular pri-s^eges of the 
pro^iJlces. All the seventeen provinces were parcelled 
out under four bishops, who had theu' seats at AiTas, 
Tournay, Cambray, and Utrecht, and were subject to 
the primates of Eheims and Cologne. Phihp the 
Good, Duke of Burgundy, had, indeed, meditated an 
increase in the number of bishops to meet the wants 
of the increasing population ; but, unfortunately, in 
the excitement of a life of pleasure had abandoned the 
project. Ambition and lust of conquest withdrew 
the mind of Charles the Bold from the internal con- 
cerns of his kingdom, and Maximilian had ah^ady too 
many subjects of dispute with the states to venture 
to add to their number by proposing this change. A 
stormy reign prevented Charles Y. from the execution 
of this extensive plan, which Phihp II. now undertook 
as a bequest from all these princes. The moment had 
now arrived when the urgent necessities of the Church 
would exctise the innovation, and the leisure of peace 
favoured its accomplishment. With the prodigious 
crowd of people fi-om all the countries of Eui'ope who 
were crowded together in the towns of the Xether- 
lands, a multitude of rehgious opinions had also gi'own 
up; and it was impossible that rehgion could any 
longer be effectually superintended by so few eyes as 
were formerly sufficient. While the number of bishops 



82 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

was so small their districts must, of necessity, have 
been proportionally extensive, and four men could not 
be adequate to maintain the purity of the faith through 
so wide a district. 

The jurisdiction which the Archbishops of Cologne 
and Kheims exercised over the Netherlands had long 
been a stumbling-block to the government, which 
could not look on this territory as really its own 
property so long as such an important branch of 
power was still wielded by foreign hands. To snatch 
this prerogative from the alien archbishops; by new 
and active agents to give fresh life and vigour to the 
superintendence of the faith, and at the same time to 
strengthen the number of the partisans of government 
at the diet, no more effectual means could be devised 
than to increase the number of bishops. Eesolved 
upon doing this Philip II. ascended the throne ; but 
he soon found that a change in the hierarchy would 
inevitably meet with warm opposition from the prov- 
inces, without whose consent, nevertheless, it would be 
vain to attempt it. Philip foresaw that the nobility 
would never approve of a measure which would so 
strongly augment the royal party, and take from the 
aristocracy the preponderance of power in the diet. 
The revenues, too, for the maintenance of these new 
bishops must be diverted from the abbots and monks, 
and these formed a considerable part of the states of 
the realm. He had, besides, to fear the opposition 
of the Protestants, who would not fail to act secretly 
in the diet against him. On these accounts the whole 
affair was discussed at Rome with the greatest possible 
secrecy. Instructed by, and as the agent of, Gran- 
vella, Francis Sonnoi, a priest of Louvain, came before 
Paul IV. to inform him how extensive the provinces 
were, how thriving and populous, how luxurious in 
their prosperity. But, he continued, in the immoderate 
enjoyment of liberty the true faith is neglected, and 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 83 

heretics prosper. To obviate this evil the Eomish See 
must have recourse to extraordinary measures. It was 
not difficult to prevail on the Eomish pontiff to make 
a change which would enlarge the sphere of his own 
jurisdiction. 

Paul IV. appointed a tribunal of seven cardinals to 
deliberate upon this important matter ; but death called 
him away, and he left to his successor, Pius lY., the 
duty of carrying their advice into execution. The wel- 
come tidings of the Pope's determination reached the 
king in Zealand when he was just on the point of 
setting sail for Spain, and the minister was secretly 
charged with the dangerous reform. The new con- 
stitution of the hierarchy was published in 1560 ; in 
addition to the then existing four bishoprics thirteen 
new ones were estabhshed, according to the number 
of seventeen provinces, and four of them were raised 
into archbishoprics. Six of these episcopal sees, viz., 
in Antwerp, Herzogenbusch, Ghent, Bruges, Ypres, and 
Kuremonde, were placed under the Archbishopric of 
MaHnes; five others, Haarlem, Middelburg, Leuwar- 
den, Deventer, and Groningen, under the Archbishopric 
of Utrecht; and the remaining four. Arras, Tournay, 
St. Omer, and Namur, which lie nearest to Prance, 
and have language, character, and manners in common 
with that country, under the Archbishopric of Cam- 
bray. Malines, situated in the middle of Brabant and 
in the centre of all the seventeen provinces, was made 
the primacy of all the rest, and was, with several rich 
abbeys, the reward of Granvella. The revenues of the 
new bishoprics were provided by an appropriation of 
the treasures of the cloisters and abbeys which had 
accumulated from pious benefactions during centuries. 
Some of the abbots were raised to the episcopal throne, 
and with the possession of their cloisters and prelacies 
retained also the vote at the diet which was attached 
to them. At the same time to every bishopric nine 



84 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

prebends were attached, and bestowed on the most 
learned juris-consultists and theologians, who were to 
support the Inquisition and the bishop in his spiritual 
office. Of these, the two who were most deserving by 
knowledge, experience, and unblemished hfe were to 
be constituted actual inquisitors, and to have the first 
voice in the Synods. To the Archbishop of M alines, 
as metropolitan of all the seventeen provinces, the full 
authority was given to appoint, or at discretion depose, 
archbishops and bishops ; and the Eomish See was 
only to give its ratification to his acts. 

At any other period the nation would have received 
with gratitude and approved of such a measure of 
church reform, since it was fully called for by circum- 
stances, was conducive to the interests of religion, and 
absolutely indispensable for the moral reformation of 
the monkhood. Now the temper of the time saw in 
it nothing but a hateful change. Universal was the 
indignation with which it was received. A cry was 
raised that the constitution was trampled under foot, 
the rights of the nation violated, and that the Inquisi- 
tion was already at the door, and would soon open 
here, as in Spain, its bloody tribunal. The people 
beheld with dismay these new servants of arbitrary 
power and of persecution. The nobility saw in it 
nothing but a strengthening of the royal authority by 
the addition of fourteen votes in the states' assembly, 
and a withdrawal of the firmest prop of their freedom, 
the balance of the royal and the civil power. The old 
bishops complained of the diminution of their incomes 
and the circumscription of their sees ; the abbots and 
monks had not only lost power and income, but had 
received in exchange rigid censors of their morals. 
Noble and simple, laity and clergy, united against the 
common foe, and while all singly struggled for some 
petty private interest, the cry appeared to come from 
the formidable voice of patriotism. 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 85 

Among all the provinces Brabant was loudest in its 
opposition. The inviolability of its church constitution 
was one of the important privileges which it had re- 
served in the remarkable charter of the " Joyful Entry," 
— statutes which the sovereign could not violate with- 
out releasing the nation from its allegiance to him. 
In vain did the university of Louvain assert that in 
disturbed times of the Church a privilege lost its power 
which had been granted in the period of its tranquil- 
lity. The introduction of the new bishoprics into the 
constitution was thought to shake the whole fabric 
of liberty. The prelacies, which were now transferred 
to the bishops, must henceforth serve another rule than 
the advantage of the province of whose states they 
had been members. The once free patriotic citizens 
were to be instruments of the Komish See and obedient 
tools of the archbishop, who again, as first prelate of 
Brabant, had the immediate control over them. The 
freedom of voting was gone, because the bishops, as 
servile spies of the crown, made every one fearful. 
" Who," it was asked, " will after this venture to raise 
his voice in parliament before such observers, or in 
their presence dare to protect the rights of the nation 
against the rapacious hands of the government ? They 
will trace out the resources of the provinces, and be- 
tray to the crown the secrets of our freedom and our 
property. They will obstruct the way to all offices 
of honour ; we shall soon see the courtiers of the king 
succeed the present men ; the children of foreigners 
will, for the future, fill the parliament, and the private 
interest of their patron will guide their venal votes." 
" What an act of oppression," rejoined the monks, " to 
pervert to other objects the pious designs of our holy 
institutions, to contemn the inviolable wishes of the 
dead, and to take that which a devout charity had 
deposited in our chests for the relief of the unfortunate 
and make it subservient to the luxury of the bishops. 



86 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

thus inflating their arrogant pomp with the plunder 
of the poor ? " Not only the abbots and monks, who 
really did suffer by this act of appropriation, but every 
family which could flatter itself with the slightest 
hope of enjoying, at some time or other, even in the 
most remote posterity, the benefit of this monastic 
foundation, felt this disappointment of their distant 
expectations as much as if they had suffered an actual 
injury, and the wrongs of a few abbot-prelates became 
the concern of a whole nation. 

Historians have not omitted to record the covert 
proceedings of Wilham of Orange during this general 
commotion, who laboured to conduct to one end these 
various and conflicting passions. At his instigation the 
people of Brabant petitioned the regent for an advocate 
and protector, since they alone, of all his Flemish 
subjects, had the misfortune to unite, in one and the 
same person, their counsel and their ruler. Had the 
demand been granted, their choice could fall on no 
other than the Prince of Orange. But Granvella, with 
his usual presence of mind, broke through the snare. 
" The man who receives this office," he declared in the 
state council, " will, I hope, see that he divides Brabant 
with the king ! " The long delay of the papal bull, 
which was kept back by a misunderstanding between 
the Eomish and Spanish courts, gave the disaffected an 
opportunity to combine for a common object. In 
perfect secrecy the states of Brabant despatched an 
extraordinary messenger to Pius IV. to urge their 
wishes in Eome itself. The ambassador was provided 
with important letters of recommendation from the 
Prince of Orange, and carried with him considerable 
sums to pave his way to the father of the Church. 
At the same time a pubhc letter was forwarded from 
the city of Antwerp to the King of Spain containing 
the most urgent representations, and supplicating him 
to spare that flourishing commercial town from the 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 87 

threatened innovation. They knew, it was stated, that 
the intentions of the monarch were the best, and 
that the institution of the new bishops was hkely to 
be highly conducive to the maintenance of true re- 
ligion ; but the foreigners could not be convinced of 
this, and on them depended the prosperity of their 
town. Among them the most groundless rumours 
would be as perilous as the most true. The first 
embassy was discovered in time, and its object disap- 
pointed by the prudence of the regent ; by the second 
the town of Antwerp gained so far its point that it 
was to remain without a bishop, at least until the 
personal arrival of the king, which was talked of. 

The example and success of Antwerp gave the 
signal of opposition to all the other towns for which 
a new bishop was intended. It is a remarkable proof 
of the hatred to the Inquisition and the unanimity of 
the Flemish towns at this date that they preferred to 
renounce all the advantages which the residence of a 
bishop would necessarily bring to their local trade 
rather than by their consent promote that abhorred 
tribunal, and thus act in opposition to the interests 
of the whole nation. Deventer, Euremonde, and Leu- 
warden placed themselves in determined opposition, 
and (1561) successfully carried their point; in the 
other towns the bishops were, in spite of all remon- 
strances, forcibly inducted. Utrecht, Haarlem, St. 
Omer, and Middelburg were among the first which 
opened their gates to them ; the remaining towns fol- 
lowed their example ; but in MaHnes and Herzogen- 
busch the bishops were received with very httle respect. 
When Granvella made his solemn entry into the former 
town not a single nobleman showed himself, and his 
triumph was wanting in everything that could make 
it real, because those remained away over whom it 
was meant to be celebrated. 

In the meantime, too, the period had elapsed within 



88 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

which the Spanish troops were to have left the coun- 
try, and as yet there was no appearance of their being 
withdrawn. People perceived with terror the real 
cause of the delay, and suspicion lent it a fatal con- 
nection with the Inquisition. The detention of these 
troops, as it rendered the nation more vigilant and 
distrustful, made it more difficult for the minister to 
proceed with the other innovations, and yet he would 
fain not deprive himself of this powerful and appar- 
ently indispensable aid in a country where all hated 
him, and in the execution of a commission to which 
all were opposed. At last, however, the regent saw 
herself compelled by the universal murmurs of dis- 
content to urge most earnestly upon the king the 
necessity of the withdrawal of the troops. " The prov- 
inces," she writes to Madrid, " have unanimously de- 
clared that they would never again be induced to grant 
the extraordinary taxes required by the government 
as long as word was not kept with them in this 
matter. The danger of a revolt was far more immi- 
nent than that of an attack by the French Protestants, 
and if a rebellion was to take place in the Netherlands 
these forces would be too weak to repress it, and there 
was not sufficient money in the treasury to enlist 
new." By delaying his answer the king still sought 
at least to gain time, and the reiterated representations 
of the regent would still have remained ineffectual, if, 
fortunately for the provinces, a loss which he had 
lately suffered from the Turks had not compelled him 
to employ these troops in the Mediterranean. He, 
therefore, at last consented to their departure : they 
were embarked in 1561 in Zealand, and the exult- 
ing shouts of all the provinces accompanied their 
departure. 

Meanwhile Granvella ruled in the Council of State 
almost uncontrolled. All offices, secular and spiritual, 
were given away through him; his opinion prevailed 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 89 

against the unanimous voice of the whole assembly. 
The regent herself was governed by him. He had con- 
trived to manage so that her appointment was made 
out for two years only, and by this expedient he kept 
her always in his power. It seldom happened that 
any important affair was submitted to the other mem- 
bers, and if it really did occur it was only such as had 
been long before decided, to which it was only nec- 
essary for formality's sake to gain their sanction. 
Whenever a royal letter was read Viglius received in- 
structions to omit all such passages as were underlined 
by the minister. It often happened that this corre- 
spondence with Spain laid open the weakness of the 
government, or the anxiety felt by the regent, with 
which it was not expedient to inform the members, 
whose loyalty was distrusted. If again it occurred 
that the opposition gained a majority over the minister, 
and insisted with determination on an article which 
he could not well put off any longer, he sent it to 
the ministry at Madrid for their decision, by which he 
at least gained time, and in any case was certain to 
find support. With the exception of the Count of 
Barlaimont, the President Viglius, and a few others, 
all the other counsellors were but superfluous figures 
in ^the senate, and the minister's behaviour to them 
marked the small value which he placed upon their 
friendship and adherence. No wonder that men whose 
pride had been so greatly indulged by the flattering 
attentions of sovereign princes, and to whom, as to the 
idols of their country, their fellow citizens paid the 
most reverential submission, should be highly indig- 
nant at this arrogance of a plebeian. Many of them 
had been personally insulted by Granvella. The Prince 
of Orange was well aware that it was he who had pre- 
vented his marriage with the Princess of Lorraine, and 
that he had also endeavoured to break off the negotia- 
tions for another alliance with the Princess of Savoy. 



90 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

He had deprived Count Horn of the government of 
Guelders and Ziitphen, and had kept for himself an 
abbey which Count Egmont had in vain exerted him- 
self to obtain for a relation. Confident of his superior 
power, he did not even think it worth while to conceal 
from the nobility his contempt for them, and which, 
as a rule, marked his whole administration ; William 
of Orange was the only one with whom he deemed it 
advisable to dissemble. Although he really believed 
himself to be raised far above all the laws of fear and 
decorum, still in this point, however, his confident 
arrogance misled him, and he erred no less against 
policy than he sinned against propriety. In the exist- 
ing posture of affairs the government could hardly have 
adopted a worse measure than that of throwing disre- 
spect on the nobility. It had it in its power to flatter 
the prejudices and feelings of the aristocracy, and thus 
artfully and imperceptibly win them over to its plans, 
and through them subvert the edifice of national liberty. 
Now it admonished them, most inopportunely, of their 
duties, their dignity, and their power ; calling upon 
them even to be patriots, and to devote to the cause of 
true greatness an ambition which hitherto it had incon- 
siderately repelled. To carry into effect the ordinances 
it required the active cooperation of the lieutenant- 
governors ; no wonder, however, that the latter showed 
but little zeal to afford this assistance. On the con- 
trary, it is highly probable that they silently laboured 
to augment the difficulties of the minister, and to 
subvert his measures, and through his ill success to 
diminish the king's confidence in him, and expose his 
administration to contempt. The rapid progress which 
in spite of those horrible edicts the Eeformation made 
during Granvella's administration in the Netherlands, 
is evidently to be ascribed to the lukewarmness of the 
nobility in opposing it. If the minister had been sure 
of the nobles he might have despised the fury of the 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 91 

mob, which would have impotently dashed itself against 
the dreaded barriers of the throne. The sufferings 
of the citizens lingered long in tears and sighs, until 
the arts and the example of the nobihty called forth 
a louder expression of them. 

Meanwhile the inquisitions into religion were carried 
on with renewed vigour by the crowd of new labourers 
(1561, 1562), and the edicts against heretics were 
enforced with fearful obedience. But the critical 
moment when this detestable remedy might have been 
apphed was allowed to pass by ; the nation had become 
too strong and vigorous for such rough treatment. 
The new rehgion could now be extirpated only by the 
death of all its professors. The present executions 
were but so many alluring exhibitions of its excellence, 
so many scenes of its triumphs and radiant virtue. 
The heroic greatness with which the victims died made 
converts to the opinions for which they perished. One 
martyr gained ten new proselytes. Not in towns only, 
or villages, but on the very highways, in the boats and 
pubhc carriages disputes were held touching the dignity 
of the Pope, the saints, purgatory, and indulgences, and 
sermons were preached and men converted- From the 
country and from the towns the common people rushed 
in crowds to rescue the prisoners of the Holy Tribunal 
from the hands of its satellites, and the municijjal 
officers who ventured to support it with the civil forces 
were pelted with stones. Multitudes accompanied the 
Protestant preachers whom the Inquisition pursued, 
bore them on their shoulders to and from church, and 
at the risk of their hves concealed them from their 
persecutors. The first province which was seized with 
the fanatical spirit of rebeUion was, as had been ex- 
pected, Walloon Flanders. A French Calvinist, by 
name Lannoi, set himself up in Tournay as a worker 
of miracles, where he hired a few women to simulate 
diseases, and to pretend to be cured by him. He 



92 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

preached in the woods near the town, drew the people 
in great numbers after him, and scattered in their 
minds the seeds of rebellion. Similar teachers appeared 
in Lille and Valenciennes, but in the latter place the 
municipal functionaries succeeded in seizing the persons 
of these incendiaries ; while, however, they delayed to 
execute them their followers increased so rapidly that 
they became sufficiently strong to break open the 
prisons and forcibly deprive justice of its victims. 
Troops at last were brought into the town and order 
restored. But this trifling occurrence had for a moment 
withdrawn the veil which had hitherto concealed the 
strength of the Protestant party, and allowed the min- 
ister to compute their prodigious numbers. In Tour- 
nay alone five thousand at one time had been seen 
attending the sermons, and not many less in Valen- 
ciennes. What might not be expected from the 
northern pro^dnces, where liberty was greater, and 
the seat of government more remote, and where the 
vicinity of Germany and Denmark multiplied the 
sources of contagion ? One slight provocation had 
sufficed to draw from its concealment so formidable 
a multitude. How much greater was, perhaps, the 
number of those who in their hearts -acknowledged 
the new sect, and only waited for a favourable oppor- 
tunity to publish their adhesion to it. This discovery 
greatly alarmed the regent. The scanty obedience 
paid to the edicts, the wants of the exhausted treasury, 
which compelled her to impose new taxes, and the 
suspicious movements of the Huguenots on the French 
frontiers still further increased her anxiety. At the 
same time she received a command from Madrid to 
send off two thousand Flemish cavalry to the army of 
the Queen Mother in France, who, in the distresses 
of the civil war, had recourse to Philip II. for assist- 
ance. Every affair of faith, in whatever land it might 
be, was made by Philip his own business. He felt it 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 93 

as keenly as any catastrophe which could befall his 
own house, and in such cases always stood ready to 
sacrifice his means to foreign necessities. If it w^ere 
interested motives that here swayed him they were at 
least kingly and grand, and the bold support of his 
principles wins our admiration as much as their cruelty 
withholds our esteem. 

The regent laid before the Council of State the royal 
will on the subject of these troops, but with a very 
warm opposition on the part of the nobility. Count 
Egmont and the Prince of Orange declared that the 
time was ill-chosen for stripping the Netherlands of 
troops, when the aspect of affairs rendered rather the 
enlistment of new levies advisable. The movements 
of the troops in France momentarily threatened a 
surprise, and the commotions within the provinces 
demanded, more than ever, the utmost vigilance on 
the part of the government. Hitherto, they said, the 
German Protestants had looked idly on during the 
struggles of their brethren in the faith ; but will they 
continue to do so, especially when we are lending our 
aid to strengthen their enemy ? By thus acting shall 
we not rouse their vengeance against us, and call their 
arms into the northern Netherlands ? Nearly the 
whole Council of State joined in this opinion; their 
representations were energetic and not to be gainsaid. 
The regent herself, as well as the minister, could not 
but feel their truth, and their own interests appeared 
to forbid obedience to the royal mandate. Would it 
not be impolitic to withdraw from the Inquisition its 
sole prop by removing the larger portion of the army, 
and in a rebellious country to leave themselves with- 
out defence, dependent on the arbitrary will of an 
arrogant aristocracy ? While the regent, divided 
between the royal commands, the urgent impor- 
tunity of her council, and her own fears, could not 
venture to come to a decision, William of Orange rose 



94 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

and proposed the assembling of the States General. 
But nothing could have inflicted a more fatal blow on 
the supremacy of the crown than by yielding to this 
advice to put the nation in mind of its power and its 
rights. No measure could be more hazardous at the 
present moment. The danger which was thus gather- 
ing over the minister did not escape him ; a sign from 
him warned the regent to break off the consultation and 
adjourn the council. " The government," he writes 
to Madrid, " can do nothing more injurious to itself 
than to consent to the assembling of the states. Such 
a step is at all times perilous, because it tempts the 
nation to test and restrict the rights of the crown; 
but it is many times more objectionable at the present 
moment, when the spirit of rebelhon is already widely 
spread amongst us; when the abbots, exasperated 
at the loss of their income, will neglect nothing to 
impair the dignity of the bishops; when the whole 
nobility and all the deputies from the towns are led 
by the arts of the Prince of Orange, and the disaffected 
can securely reckon on the assistance of the nation." 
This representation, which at least was not wanting 
in sound sense, did not fail in having the desired effect 
on the king's mind. The assembling of the states was 
rejected once and for ever, the penal statutes against 
the heretics were renewed in all their rigour, and the 
regent was directed to hasten the despatch of 
the required auxiliaries. 

But to this the Council of State would not consent. 
All that she obtained was, instead of the troops, a 
supply of money for the Queen Mother, which at this 
crisis was still more welcome to her. In place, how- 
ever, of assembling the states, and in order to beguile 
the nation with, at least, the semblance of republican 
freedom, the regent summoned the governors of the 
provinces and the knights of the Golden Fleece to a 
special congress at Brussels, to consult on the present 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 95 

dangers and necessities of the state. When the presi- 
dent, Viglius, had laid before them the matters on 
which they were summoned to deliberate, three days 
were given to them for consideration. During this 
time the Prince of Orange assembled them in his 
palace, where he represented to them the necessity 
of coming to some unanimous resolution before the 
next sitting, and of agreeing on the measures which 
ought to be followed in the present dangerous state of 
affairs. 

The majority assented to the propriety of this 
course ; only Barlaimont, with a few of the depend- 
ents of the cardinal, had the courage to plead for the 
interests of the crown and of the minister. " It did 
not behoove them," he said, " to interfere in the con- 
cerns of the government, and this previous agreement 
of votes was an illegal and culpable assumption, in 
the guilt of which he would not participate," — a 
declaration which broke up the meeting vdthout any 
conclusion being come to. The regent, apprised of it 
by the Count Barlaimont, artfully contrived to keep 
the knights so well employed during their stay in the 
town that they could find no time for coming to any 
further secret understanding ; in this session, however, 
it was arranged, with their concurrence, that Florence 
of Montmorency, Lord of Montigny, should make a 
journey to Spain, in order to acquaint the king with 
the present posture of affairs. But the regent sent 
before him another messenger to Madrid, who pre- 
viously informed the king of all that had been debated 
between the Prince of Orange and the knights at the 
secret conference. 

The Flemish ambassador was flattered in Madrid 
with empty protestations of the king's favour and 
paternal sentiments toward the Netherlands, while 
the regent was commanded to thwart, to the utmost of 
her power, the secret combinations of the nobility, and. 



96 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

if possible, to sow discord among their most eminent 
members. Jealousy, private interest, and religious 
differences had long divided many of the nobles ; their 
share in the common neglect and contempt with which 
they were treated, and a general hatred of the minis- 
ter had again united them. So long as Count Egmont 
and the Prince of Orange were suitors for the re- 
gency it could not fail but that at times their compet- 
ing claims should have brought them into collision. 
Both had met each on the road to glory and before 
the throne ; both again met in the republic, where they 
strove for the same prize, the favour of their fel- 
low citizens. Such opposite characters soon became 
estranged, but the powerful sympathy of necessity as 
quickly reconciled them. Each was now indispensa- 
ble to the other, and the emergency united these two 
men together with a bond which their hearts would 
never have furnished. But it was on this very uncon- 
geniality of disposition that the regent based her 
plans ; if she could fortunately succeed in separating 
them she would at the same time divide the whole 
Flemish nobility into two parties. Through the pres- 
ents and small attentions by which she exclusively 
honoured these two she also sought to excite against 
them the envy and distrust of the rest, and by appear- 
ing to give Count Egmont a preference over the Prince 
of Orange she hoped to make the latter suspicious of 
Egmont's good faith. It happened that at this very 
time she was obliged to send an extraordinary am- 
bassador to Frankfort, to be present at the election 
of a Eoman emperor. She chose for this office the 
Duke of Aerschot, the avowed enemy of the prince, in 
order in some degree to show in his case how splendid 
was the reward which hatred against the latter might 
look for. 

The Orange faction, however, instead of suffering 
any diminution, had gained an important accession in 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 97 

Count Horn, who, as admiral of the Flemish marine, 
had convoyed the king to Biscay, and now again took 
his seat in the Council of State. Horn's restless and 
repubhcan spirit readily met the daring schemes of 
Orange and Egmont, and a dangerous Triumvirate was 
soon formed by these three friends, which shook the 
royal power in the Xetherlands, but which terminated 
very differently for each of its members. 

(1562.) Meanwhile Montigny had returned from 
his embassy, and brought back to the Council of State 
the most gracious assurance of the monarch. But the 
Prince of Orange had, through his own secret channels 
of intelhgence, received more credible information from 
Madrid, which entirely contradicted this report. By 
these means he learnt all the ill services which Gran- 
vella had done him and his friends with the king, 
and the odious appellations which were there apphed 
to the Flemish nobihty. There was no help for them 
so long as the minister retained the helm of govern- 
ment, and to procure his dismissal was the scheme, 
however rash and adventurous it appeared, which 
wholly occupied the mind of the prince. It was 
agreed between him and Counts Horn and Egmont to 
despatch a joint letter to the king, and, in the name 
of the whole nobility, formally to accuse the minister, 
and press energetically for his removal. The Duke 
of Aerschot, to whom this proposition was commu- 
nicated by Count Egmont, refused to concur in it, 
haughtily declaring that he was not disposed to receive 
laws fi'om Egmont and Orange ; that he had no cause 
of complaint against Granvella, and that he thought 
it very presumptuous to prescribe to the king what 
ministers he ought to employ. Orange received a 
similar answer from the Count of Arenberg. Either 
the seeds of distrust which the regent had scattered 
amongst the nobility had already taken root, or the 
fear of the minister's power outweighed the abhorrence 



98 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

of his measures ; at any rate, the whole nobihty shrunk 
back timidly and irresolutely from the proposal. This 
disappointment did not, however, discourage them. 
The letter was written and subscribed by all three 
(1563). 

In it Granvella was represented as the prime cause 
of all the disorders in the Netherlands. So long as the 
highest power should be entrusted to him it would, 
they declared, be impossible for them to serve the 
nation and king effectually; on the other hand, all 
would revert to its former tranquilhty, all opposition 
be discontinued, and the government regain the affec- 
tions of the people as soon as his Majesty should be 
pleased to remove this man from the helm of the state. 
In that case, they added, neither exertion nor zeal 
would be wanting on their part to maintain in these 
countries the dignity of the king and the purity of 
the faith, which was no less sacred to them than 
to the cardinal, Granvella. 

Secretly as this letter was prepared, still the duchess 
was informed of it in sufficient time to anticipate it 
by another despatch, and to counteract the effect which 
it might have had on the king's mind. Some months 
passed ere an answer came from Madrid. It was mild, 
but vague. " The king," such was its import, " was 
not used to condemn his ministers unheard on the 
mere accusations of then- enemies. Common justice 
alone required that the accusers of the cardinal should 
descend from general imputations to special proofs, 
and if they were not inclined to do this in writing, 
one of them might come to Spain, where he should be 
treated with all respect." Besides this letter, which was 
equally directed to all three. Count Egmont further 
received an autogi-aph letter from the king, wherein 
his Majesty expressed a wish to learn from him in 
particular what in the common letter had been only 
generally touched upon. The regent, also, was specially 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS gg 

instructed how she was to answer the three collect- 
ively, and the count singly. The king knew his man. 
He felt it was easy to manage Count Egmont alone; 
for this reason he sought to entice him to Madrid, 
where he would be removed from the commanding 
guidance of a higher intellect. In distinguishing him 
above his two friends by so flattering a mark of his 
confidence, he made a difference in the relation in 
which they severally stood to the throne; how could 
they, then, unite with equal zeal for the same object 
when the inducements w^ere no longer the same ? 
This time, indeed, the vigilance of Orange frustrated 
the scheme; but the sequel of the history will show 
that the seed which was now. scattered was not alto- 
gether lost. 

(1563.) The king's answer gave no satisfaction 
to the three confederates ; they boldly determined to 
venture a second attempt. " It had," they wrote, " sur- 
prised them not a little, that his Majesty had thought 
their representations so unworthy of attention. It 
was not as accusers of the minister, but as counsellors 
of his Majesty, whose duty it was to inform their 
master of the condition of his states, that they had 
despatched that letter to him. They sought not the 
ruin of the minister, indeed it would gratify them to 
see him contented and happy in any other part of 
the world than here in the Netherlands. They were, 
however, fully persuaded of this, that his continued 
presence there was absolutely incompatible with the 
general tranquilhty. The present dangerous condition 
of their native country would allow none of them to 
leave it, much less to take so long a journey as to 
Spain on Granvella's account. If, therefore, his Maj- 
esty did not please to comply with their written 
request, they hoped to be excused for the future from 
attendance in the senate, where they were only ex- 
posed to the mortification of meeting the minister, and 

LofC. 



loo REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

where they could be of no service either to the king 
or the state, but only- appeared contemptible in their 
own sight. In conclusion, they begged his Majesty 
would not take ill the plain simplicity of their lan- 
guage, since persons of their character set more value 
on acting well than on speaking finely." To the same 
purport was a separate letter from Count Egmont, in 
which he returned thanks for the royal autograph. 
This second address was followed by an answer to 
the effect that " their representations should be taken 
into consideration, meanwhile they were requested to 
attend the Council of State as heretofore." 

It was evident that the monarch was far from 
intending to grant their request ; they, therefore, from 
this time forth absented themselves from the State 
Council, and even left Brussels. Not having succeeded 
in removing the minister by lawful means they sought 
to accomplish this end by a new mode from which 
more might be expected. On every occasion they and 
their adherents openly showed the contempt which 
they felt for him, and contrived to throw ridicule on 
everything he undertook. By this contemptuous treat- 
ment they hoped to harass the haughty spirit of the 
priest, and to obtain through his mortified self-love 
what they had failed in by other means. In this, 
indeed, they did not succeed ; but the expedient on 
which they had fallen led in the end to the ruin of 
the minister. 

The popular voice was raised more loudly against 
him so soon as it was perceived that he had forfeited the 
good opinion of the nobles, and that men whose senti- 
ments they had been used blindly to echo preceded them 
in detestation of him. The contemptuous manner in 
which the nobility now treated him devoted him in a 
measure to the general scorn and emboldened calumny 
which never spares even what is holiest and purest, 
to lay its sacrilegious hand on his honour. The new 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS loi 

constitution of the Church, which was the great griev- 
ance of the nation, had been the basis of his fortunes. 
This was a crime that could not be forgiven. Every 
fresh execution — and with such spectacles the activity 
of the inquisitors was only too liberal — kept alive and 
furnished dreadful exercise to the bitter animosity 
against him, and at last custom and usage inscribed 
his name on every act of oppression. A stranger in a 
land into which he had been introduced against his 
will ; alone among milKons of enemies ; uncertain of 
all his tools ; supported only by the weak arm of dis- 
tant royalty ; maintaining his intercourse with the 
nation, which he had to gain, only by means of faith- 
less instruments, all of whom made it their highest 
object to falsify his actions and misrepresent his mo- 
tives ; lastly, with a woman for his coadjutor who 
could not share with him the burden of the general 
execration — thus he stood exposed to the wantonness, 
the ingratitude, the faction, the envy, and all the evil pas- 
sions of a licentious, insubordinate people. It is worthy 
of remark that the hatred which he had incurred far 
outran the demerits which could be laid to his charge ; 
that it was difficult, nay, impossible, for his accusers to 
substantiate by proof the general condemnation which 
fell upon him from all sides. Before and after him 
fanaticism dragged its victims to the altar ; before and 
after him civil blood flowed, the rights of men were 
made a mock of, and men themselves rendered wretched. 
Under Charles V. tyranny ought to have pained more 
acutely through its novelty ; under the Duke of Alva 
it was carried to far more unnatural lengths, insomuch 
that Granvella's administration, in comparison with 
that of his successor, was even merciful ; and yet we 
do not find that his contemporaries ever evinced the 
same degree of personal exasperation and spite against 
the latter in which they indulged against his predecessor. 
To cloak the meanness of his birth in the splendour of 



I02 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

high dignities, and by an exalted station to place him 
if possible above the malice of his enemies, the regent 
had made interest at Rome to procure for him the car- 
dinal's hat ; but this very honour, which connected him 
more closely with the papal court, made him so much 
the more an alien in the provinces. The purple was a 
new crime in Brussels, and an obnoxious, detested garb, 
which in a measure publicly held forth to view the 
principles on which his future conduct would be gov- 
erned. Neither his honourable rank, which alone often 
consecrates the most infamous caitiff, nor his talents, 
which commanded esteem, nor even his terrible omnip- 
otence, which daily revealed itself in so many bloody 
manifestations, could screen him from derision. Terror 
and scorn, the fearful and the ludicrous, were in his 
instance unnaturally blended.^ Odious rumours branded 
his honour ; murderous attempts on the lives of Eg- 
mont and Orange were ascribed to him ; the most 
incredible things found credence ; the most monstrous, 
if they referred to him or were said to emanate from 
him, surprised no longer. The nation had already be- 
come uncivihsed to that degree where the most contra- 
dictory sentiments prevail side by side, and the finer 
boundary lines of decorum and moral feehng are erased. 
This belief in extraordinary crimes is almost invariably 
their immediate precursor. 



1 The nobility, at the suggestion of Count Egmont, caused their 
servants to wear a common livery, on which was embroidered a 
fool's cap. All Brussels interpreted it for the cardinal's hat, and 
every appearance of such a servant renewed their laughter ; this 
badge of a fool's cap, which was offensive to the court, was subse- 
quently changed into a bundle of arrows — an accidental jest which 
took a very serious end, and probably was the origin of the arms 
of the republic. — Vit. Vigl. T. II. 35 Thuan. 489. The respect 
for the cardinal sunk at last so low that a caricature was publicly 
placed in his own hand, in which he was represented seated on a 
heap of eggs, out of which bishops were crawling. Over him 
hovered a devil with the inscription, "This is my son, hear ye 
himl" 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 103 

But with this gloomy prospect the strange destiny 
of this man opens at the same time a grander view, 
which impresses the unprejudiced observer with pleas- 
ure and admiration. Here he beholds a nation dazzled 
by no splendour, and restrained by no fear, firmly, inex- 
orably, and unpremeditatedly unanimous in punishing 
the crime which had been committed against its dignity 
by the violent introduction of a stranger into the heart 
of its political constitution. We see him ever aloof 
and ever isolated, Kke a foreign hostile body hovering 
over a surface which repels its contact. The strong 
hand itself of the monarch, who was his friend and 
protector, could not support him against the antipathies 
of the nation which had once resolved to withhold from 
him all its sympathy. The voice of national hatred 
was all powerful, and was ready to forego even private 
interest, its certain gains ; his alms even were shunned, 
like the fruit of an accursed tree. Like pestilential 
vapour, the infamy of universal reprobation hung over 
him. In his case gratitude beheved itself absolved 
from its duties ; his adherents shunned him ; his friends 
were dumb in his behalf. So terribly did the people 
avenge the insulted majesty of their nobles and their 
nation on the greatest monarch of the earth. 

History has repeated this memorable example only 
once, in Cardinal Mazarin ; but the instance differed 
according to the spirit of the two periods and nations. 
The highest power could not protect either from deri- 
sion ; but if France found vent for its indignation in 
laughing at its pantaloon, the Netherlands hurried from 
scorn to rebelhon. The former, after a long bondage 
under the vigorous administration of Eichelieu, saw 
itself placed suddenly in unwonted liberty ; the latter 
had passed from ancient hereditary freedom into strange 
and unusual servitude; it was as natural that the 
Fronde should end again in subjection as that the Bel- 
gian troubles should issue in repubhcan independence. 



I04 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

The revolt of the Parisians was the offspring of poverty ; 
unbridled, but not bold, arrogant, but without energy, 
base and plebeian, like the source from which it sprang. 
The murmur of the Netherlands was the proud and 
powerful voice of wealth. Licentiousness and hunger 
inspired the former ; revenge, life, property, and religion 
were the animating motives of the latter. Kapacity 
was Mazarin's spring of action; Granvella's lust of 
power. The former was humane and mild ; the latter 
harsh, imperious, cruel. The French minister sought 
in the favour of his queen an asylum from the hatred 
of the magnates and the fury of the people ; the Nether- 
landish minister provoked the hatred of a whole nation 
in order to please one man. Against Mazarin were 
only a few factions and the mob they could arm ; an 
entire and united nation against Granvella. Under the 
former parHament attempted to obtain, by stealth, a 
power which did not belong to them ; under the latter 
it struggled for a lawful authority which he insidiously 
had endeavoured to wrest from them. The former had 
to contend with the princes of the blood and the peers 
of the realm, as the latter had with the native nobility 
and the states, but instead of endeavouring, like the 
former, to overthrow the common enemy, in the hope 
of stepping themselves into his place, the latter wished 
to destroy the place itself, and to divide a power 
which no single man ought to possess entire. 

While these feelings were spreading among the 
people the influence of the minister at the court of 
the regent began to totter. The repeated complaints 
against the extent of his power must at last have 
made her sensible how httle faith was placed in her 
own ; perhaps, too, she began to fear that the universal 
abhorrence which attached to him would soon include 
herself also, or that his longer stay would inevitably 
provoke the menaced revolt. Long intercourse with 
him, his instruction and example, had qualified her 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 105 

to govern without him. His dignity began to be more 
oppressive to her as he became less necessary, and his 
faults, to which her friendship had hitherto lent a veil, 
became visible as it was withdrawn. She was now 
as much disposed to search out and enumerate these 
faults as she formerly had been to conceal them. In 
this unfavourable state of her feelings toward the car- 
dinal the urgent and accumulated representations of 
the nobles began at last to find access to her mind, 
and the more easily, as they contrived to mix up her 
own fears with their own. "It was matter of great 
astonishment," said Count Egmont to her, "that to 
gratify a man who was not even a Fleming, and of 
whom, therefore, it must be well known that his hap- 
piness could not be depeiident on the prosperity of 
this country, the king could be content to see all his 
Netherlandish subjects suffer, and this to please a for- 
eigner, who if his birth made him a subject of the 
emperor, the purple had made a creature of the court 
of Kome." "To the king alone," added the count, 
"was Granvella indebted for his being still among 
the living; for the future, however, he would leave 
that care of him to the regent, and he hereby gave 
her warning." As the majority of the nobles, dis- 
gusted with the contemptuous treatment which they 
met with in the Council of State, gradually withdrew 
from it, the arbitrary proceedings of the minister lost 
the last semblance of republican deliberation which 
had hitherto softened the odious aspect, and the empty 
desolation of the council-chamber made his domineer- 
ing rule appear in all its obnoxiousness. The regent 
now felt that she had a master over her, and from that 
moment the banishment of the minister was decided 
upon. 

With this object she despatched her private secre- 
tary, Thomas Armenteros, to Spain, to acquaint the 
king with the circumstances in which the cardinal 



io6 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

was placed, to apprise him of the intimations she 
had received of the intentions of the nobles, and in 
this manner to cause the resolution for his recall to 
appear to emanate from the king himseK. What she 
did not hke to trust to a letter Armenteros was or- 
dered ingeniously to interweave in the oral communi- 
cation which the king would probably require from 
him. Armenteros fulfilled his commission with all 
the ability of a consummate courtier ; but an audience 
of four hours could not overthrow the work of many 
years, nor destroy in Philip's mind his opinion of 
his minister, which was there unalterably estabhshed. 
Long did the monarch hold counsel with his policy 
and his interest, until Granvella himself came to the 
aid of his wavering resolution and voluntarily solicited 
a dismissal, which, he feared, could not much longer 
be deferred. What the detestation of all the Nether- 
lands could not effect the contemptuous treatment of 
the nobility accomplished ; he was at last weary of a 
power which was no longer feared, and exposed him 
less to envy than to infamy. 

Perhaps as some have beheved he trembled for his 
life, which was certainly in more than imaginary dan- 
ger ; perhaps he wished to receive his dismissal from 
the king under the shape of a boon rather than of a 
sentence, and after the example of the Komans meet 
with dignity a fate which he could no longer avoid. 
Philip too, it would appear, preferred generously to 
accord to the nation a request rather than to yield 
at a later period to a demand, and hoped at least to 
merit their thanks by voluntarily conceding now what 
necessity would ere long extort. His fears prevailed 
over his obstinacy, and prudence overcame pride. 

G-ranvella doubted not for a moment what the de- 
cision of the king would be. A few days after the 
return of Armenteros he saw humility and flattery 
disappear from the few faces which had till then 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 107 

servilely smiled upon him; the last small crowd of 
base flatterers and eye-servants vanished from around 
his person ; his threshold was forsaken ; he perceived 
that the fructifying warmth of royal favour had left 
him. 

Detraction, which had assailed him during his whole 
administration, did not spare him even in the moment 
of resignation. People did not scruple to assert that a 
short time before he laid down his office he had ex- 
pressed a wish to be reconciled to the Prince of Orange 
and Count Egmont, and even offered, if their forgive- 
ness could be hoped for on no other terms, to ask 
pardon of them on his knees. It was base and con- 
temptible to sully the memory of a great and extraor- 
dinary man with such a charge, but it is still more so 
to hand it down uncontradicted to posterity. Gran- 
vella submitted to the royal command with a dignified 
composure. Already had he written, a few months 
previously, to the Duke of Alva in Spain, to prepare 
him a place of refuge in Madrid, in case of his having 
to quit the Netherlands. The latter long bethought 
himself whether it was advisable to bring thither so 
dangerous a rival for the favour of his king, or to deny 
so important a friend such a valuable means of indulg- 
ing his old hatred of the Flemish nobles. Picvenge 
prevailed over fear, and he strenuously supported Gran- 
vella's request with the monarch. But his intercession 
was fruitless. Armenteros had persuaded the king that 
the minister's residence in Madrid would onlv re^dve, 
with increased violence, all the complaints of the Bel- 
gian nation, to which his ministry had been sacrificed ; 
for then, he said, he would be suspected of poisoning 
the very source of that power, whose outlets only he 
had hitherto been charged with corrupting. He there- 
fore sent him to Burgundy, his native place, for which 
a decent pretext fortunately presented itself. The car- 
dinal gave to his departure from Brussels the appear- 



lo8 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

ance of an unimportant journey, from which he would 
return in a few days. At the same time, however, all 
the state counsellors, who, under his administration, 
had voluntarily excluded themselves from its sittings, 
received a command from the court to resume their 
seats in the senate at Brussels. Although the latter 
circumstance made his return not very credible, never- 
theless the remotest possibility of it sobered the tri- 
umph which celebrated his departure. The regent 
herself appears to have been undecided what to think 
about the report ; for, in a fresh letter to the king, she 
repeated all the representations and arguments which 
ought to restrain him from restoring this minister. 
Granvella himself, in his correspondence with Barlai- 
mont and Viglius, endeavoured to keep alive this 
rumour, and at least to alarm with fears, however 
unsubstantial, the enemies whom he could no longer 
punish by his presence. Indeed, the dread of the 
influence of this extraordinary man was so exceedingly 
great that, to appease it, he was at last driven even 
from his home and his country. 

After the death of Pius IV., Granvella went to 
Rome, to be present at the election of a new Pope, 
and at the same time to discharge some commissions 
of his master, whose confidence in him remained un- 
shaken. Soon after, Philip made him viceroy of 
Naples, where he succumbed to the seductions of the 
climate, and the spirit which no vicissitudes could 
bend voluptuousness overcame. He was sixty-two 
years old when the king allowed him to revisit Spain, 
where he continued with unlimited powers to admin- 
ister the affairs of Italy. A gloomy old age, and the 
self-satisfied pride of a sexagenarian administration, 
made him a harsh and rigid judge of the opinions 
of others, a slave of custom, and a tedious panegyrist 
of past times. But the policy of the closing century 
had ceased to be the policy of the opening one. A 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 109 

new and younger ministry were soon weary of so 
imperious a superintendent, and Philip himself began 
to shun the aged counsellor, who found nothing worthy 
of praise but the deeds of his father. Nevertheless, 
when the conquest of Portugal called Philip to Lisbon, 
he confided to the cardinal the care of his Spanish 
territories. Finally, on an Itahan tour, in the town 
of Mantua, in the seventy-third year of his life, Gran- 
vella terminated his long existence in the full enjoy- 
ment of his glory, and after possessing for forty years 
the uninterrupted confidence of his king. 



THE COUNCIL OF STATE. 

(1564.) Immediately upon the departure of the 
minister, all the happy results which were promised 
from his withdrawal were fulfilled. The disaffected 
nobles resumed their seats in the council, and again 
devoted themselves to the affairs of the state with 
redoubled zeal, in order to give no room for regret for 
him whom they had driven away, and to prove, by 
the fortunate administration of the state, that his 
services were not indispensable. The crowd around 
the duchess was great. All vied with one another 
in readiness, in submission, and zeal in her service ; 
the hours of night were not allowed to stop the 
transaction of pressing business of state ; the great- 
est unanimity existed between the three councils, the 
best understanding between the court and the states. 
From the obliging temper of the Flemish nobility 
everything was to be had, as soon as their pride and 
self-will was flattered by confidence and obliging treat- 
ment. The regent took advantage of the first joy of 
the nation to beguile them into a vote of certain 
taxes, which, under the preceding administration, 
she could not have hoped to extort. In this, the 



no REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

great credit of the nobility effectually supported her, 
and she soon learned from this nation the secret, 
which had been so often verified in the German 
diet — that much must be demanded in order to 
get a little. 

With pleasure did the regent see herself emanci- 
pated from her long thraldom; the emulous industry 
of the nobility lightened for her the burden of busi- 
ness, and their insinuating humility allowed her to 
feel the full sweetness of power. 

(1564.) Granvella had been overthrown, but his 
party still remained. His pohcy lived in his crea- 
tures, whom he left behind him in the privy council 
and in the chamber of finance. Hatred still smoul- 
dered amongst the factious long after the leader was 
banished, and the names of the Orange and Eoyalist 
parties, of the Patriots and Cardinalists, still continued 
to divide the senate and to keep up the flames of 
discord. Viglius Van Zuichem Van Aytta, president 
of the privy council, state counsellor and keeper of the 
seal, was now looked upon as the most important per- 
son in the senate, and the most powerful prop of the 
crown and the tiara. This highly meritorious old man, 
whom we have to thank for some valuable contribu- 
tions toward the history of the rebellion of the Low 
Countries, and whose confidential correspondence with 
his friends has generally been the guide of our narra- 
tive, was one of the greatest lawyers of his time, as 
well as a theologian and priest, and had already, 
under the emperor, filled the most important offices. 
Familiar intercourse with the learned men who 
adorned the age, and at the head of whom stood 
Erasmus of Eotterdam, combined with frequent travels 
in the imperial service, had extended the sphere of his 
information and experience, and in many points raised 
him in his principles and opinions above his contem- 
poraries. The fame of his erudition filled the whole 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS m 

century in which he lived, and has handed his name 
down to posterity. When, in the year 1548, the con- 
nection of the Netherlands with the German empire 
was to be settled at the Diet of Augsburg, Charles V. 
sent hither this statesman to manage the interests of 
the provinces; and his abihty principally succeeded 
in turning the negotiations to the advantage of the 
Netherlands. After the death of the emperor, Viglius 
was one of the many eminent ministers bequeathed to 
Philip by his father, and one of the few in whom he 
honoured his memory. The fortune of the minister, 
Granvella, with whom he was united by the ties of 
an early acquaintance, raised him likewise to great- 
ness ; but he did not share the fall of his patron, 
because he had not participated in his lust of power; 
nor, consequently, the hatred which attached to him. 
A residence of twenty years in the provinces, where 
the most important affairs were entrusted to him, 
approved loyalty to his king, and zealous attachment 
to the Roman Catholic tenets, made him one of 
the most distinguished instruments of royalty in the 
Netherlands. 

Yiglius was a man of learning, but no thinker ; an 
experienced statesman, but without an enlightened 
mind ; of an intellect not sufficiently powerful to 
break, like his friend Erasmus, the fetters of error, 
yet not sufficiently bad to employ it, like his prede- 
cessor, Granvella, in the service of his own passions. 
Too weak and timid to follow boldly the guidance 
of his reason, he preferred trusting to the more con- 
venient path of conscience ; a thing was just so soon 
as it became his duty ; he belonged to those honest 
men who are indispensable to bad ones ; fraud reck- 
oned on his honesty. Half a century later he would 
have received his immortality from the freedom which 
he now helped to subvert. In the privy council at 
Brussels he was the servant of tyranny ; in the parlia- 



112 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

ment in London, or in the senate at Amsterdam, he 
would have died, perhaps, like Thomas More or Olden 
Barneveldt. 

In the Count Barlaimont, the president of the coun- 
cil of finance, the opposition had a no less formidable 
antagonist than in Viglius. Historians have trans- 
mitted but little information regarding the services 
and the opinions of this man. In the first part of 
his career the dazzling greatness of Cardinal Granvella 
seems to have cast a shade over him ; after the latter 
had disappeared from the stage the superiority of the 
opposite party kept him down, but still the little that 
we do find respecting him throws a favourable light 
over his character. More than once the Prince of 
Orange exerted himself to detach him from the in- 
terests of the cardinal, and to join him to his own 
party — sufficient proof that he placed a value on the 
prize. All his efforts failed, which shows that he had 
to do with no vacillating character. More than once 
we see him alone, of all the members of the council, 
stepping forward to oppose the dominant faction, and 
protecting against universal opposition the interests 
of the crown, which were in momentary peril of being 
sacrificed. When the Prince of Orange had assembled 
the knights of the Golden Fleece in his own palace, 
with a view to induce them to come to a preparatory 
resolution for the abohtion of the Inquisition, Barlai- 
mont was the first to denounce the illegality of this 
proceeding and to inform the regent of it. Some 
time after the prince asked him if the regent knew 
of that assembly, and Barlaimont hesitated not a 
moment to avow to him the truth. All the steps 
which have been ascribed to him bespeak a man 
whom neither influence nor fear could tempt, — who, 
with a firm courage and indomitable constancy, re~ 
mained faithful to the party which he had once 
chosen, but who, it must at the same time be con- 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 113 

fessed, entertained too proud and too despotic notions 
to have selected any other. 

Amongst the adherents of the royal party at Brus- 
sels, we have, further, the names of the Duke of 
Aerschot, the Counts of Mansfeld, Megen, and Aren- 
berg — all three native Netherlanders ; and therefore, 
as it appeared, bound equally with the whole Nether- 
landish nobility to oppose the hierarchy and the royal- 
power in their native country. So much the more sur- 
prised must we feel at their contrary behaviour, and 
which is indeed the more remarkable, since we find 
them on terms of friendship with the most eminent 
members of the faction, and anything but insensible 
to the common grievances of their country. 

But they had not self-confidence or heroism enough 
to venture on an unequal contest with so superior an 
antagonist. With a cowardly prudence they made 
their just discontent submit to the stern law of neces- 
sity, and imposed a hard sacrifice on their pride be- 
cause their pampered vanity was capable of nothing 
better. Too thrifty and too discreet to wish to extort 
from the justice or the fear of their sovereign the 
certain good which they already possessed from his 
voluntary generosity, or to resign a real happiness in 
order to preserve the shadow of another, they rather 
employed the propitious moment to drive a traffic with 
their constancy, which, from the general defection of 
the nobility, had now risen in value. Caring little for 
true glory, they allowed their ambition to decide which 
party they should take ; for the ambition of base minds 
prefers to bow beneath the hard yoke of compulsion 
rather than submit to the gentle sway of a superior 
intellect. Small would have been the value of the 
favour conferred had they bestowed themselves on the 
Prince of Orange; but their connection with royalty 
made them so much the more formidable as oppo- 
nents. There their names would have been lost 



114 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

among his numerous adherents and in the splendour 
of their rival. On the almost deserted side of the 
court their insignificant merit acquired lustre. 

The families of Nassau and Croi (to the latter be- 
longed the Duke of Aerschot) had for several reigns 
been competitors for influence and honour, and their 
rivalry had kept up an old feud between their families, 
which rehgious differences finally made irreconcilable. 
The house of Croi from time immemorial had been 
renowned for its devout and strict observance of papis- 
tic rites and ceremonies; the Counts of Nassau had 
gone over to the new sect — sufficient reasons why 
Philip of Croi, Duke of Aerschot, should prefer a party 
which placed him the most decidedly in opposition to 
the Prince of Orange. The court did not fail to take 
advantage of this private feud, and to oppose so impor- 
tant an enemy to the increasing influence of the house 
of Nassau in the republic. The Counts Mansfeld and 
Megen had till lately been the confidential friends of 
Count Egmont. In common with him they had raised 
their voice against the minister, had joined him in 
resisting the Inquisition and the edicts, and had hith- 
erto held with him as far as honour and duty would 
permit. But at these limits the three friends now 
separated. Egmont's unsuspecting virtue incessantly 
hurried him forward on the road to ruin ; Mansfeld 
and Megen, admonished of the danger, began in good 
time to think of a safe retreat. There still exist let- 
ters which were interchanged between the Counts 
Egmont and Mansfeld, and which, although written 
at a later period, give us a true picture of their former 
friendship. " If," replied Count Mansfeld to his friend, 
who in an amicable manner had reproved him for his 
defection to the king, "if formerly I was of opinion 
that the general good made the abolition of the Inqui- 
sition, the mitigation of the edicts, and the removal of 
the Cardinal Granvella necessary, the king has now 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 115 

acquiesced in this wish, and removed the cause of 
complaint. We have already done too much against 
the majesty of the sovereign and the authority of the 
Church; it is high time for us to turn, if we would 
wish to meet the king, when he comes, with open 
brow and without anxiety. As regards my own per- 
son, I do not dread his vengeance ; with confident 
courage I would at his first summons present myself 
in Spain, and boldly abide my sentence from his jus- 
tice and goodness. I do not say this as if I doubted 
whether Count Egmont can assert the same, but he 
will act prudently in looking more to his own safety, 
and in removing suspicion from his actions. If I 
hear," he says, in conclusion, " that he has allowed my 
admonitions to have their due weight, our friendship 
continues ; if not, I feel myself in that case strong 
enough to sacrifice all human ties to my duty and to 
honour." 

The enlarged power of the nobility exposed the 
repubhc to almost a greater evil than that which it 
had just escaped by the removal of the minister. Im- 
poverished by long habits of luxury, which at the same 
time had relaxed their morals, and to which they were 
now too much addicted to be able to renounce them, 
they yielded to the perilous opportunity of indulging 
their ruling inclination, and of again repairing the ex- 
piring lustre of their fortunes. Extravagance brought 
on the thirst for gain, and this introduced bribery. 
Secular and ecclesiastical offices were pubhcly put up 
to sale; posts of honour, privileges, and patents were 
sold to the highest bidder; even justice was made a 
trade. Whom the privy council had condemned was 
acquitted by the Council of State, and what the former 
refused to grant was to be purchased from the latter. 
The Council of State, indeed, subsequently retorted the 
charge on the two other councils, but it forgot that it 
was its own example that corrupted them. The shrewd- 



Ii6 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

ness of rapacity opened new sources of gain. Life, 
liberty, and religion were insured for a certain sum, 
like landed estates; for gold, murderers and male- 
factors were free, and the nation was plundered by a 
lottery. The servants and creatures of the state, coun- 
sellors and governors of provinces, were, without re- 
gard to rank or merit, pushed into the most important 
posts ; whoever had a petition to present at court had 
to make his way through the governors of provinces 
and their inferior servants. No artifice of seduction 
was spared to implicate in these excesses the private 
secretary of the duchess, Thomas Armenteros, a man 
up to this time of irreproachable character. By pre- 
tended professions of attachment and friendship a suc- 
cessful attempt was made to gain his confidence, and 
by luxurious entertainments to undermine his princi- 
ples ; the seductive example infected his morals, and 
new wants overcame his hitherto incorruptible integrity. 
He was now blind to abuses in which he was an accom- 
plice, and drew a veil over the crimes of others in order 
at the same time to cloak his own. With his knowledge 
the royal exchequer was robbed, and the objects of the 
government were defeated through a corrupt admin- 
istration of its revenues. Meanwhile the regent wan- 
dered on in a fond dream of power and activity, which 
the flattery of the nobles artfully knew how to foster. 
The ambition of the factious played with the foibles 
of a woman, and with empty signs and a humble show 
of submission purchased real power from her. She 
soon belonged entirely to the faction, and had imper- 
ceptibly changed her principles. Diametrically oppos- 
ing all her former proceedings, even in direct violation 
of her duty, she now brought before the Council of 
State, which was swayed by the faction, not only ques- 
tions which belonged to the other councils, but also 
the suggestions which Viglius had made to her in 
private, in the same way as formerly, under Granvella's 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 117 

administration, she had improperly neglected to consult 
it at all. Nearly all business and all influence were 
now diverted to the governors of provinces. All peti- 
tions were directed to them, by them all lucrative 
appointments were bestowed. Their usurpations were 
indeed carried so far that law proceedings were with- 
drawn from the municipal authorities of the towns and 
brought before their own tribunals. The respectabihty 
of the provincial courts decreased as theirs extended, 
and with the respectability of the municipal func- 
tionaries the administration of justice and civil order 
declined. The smaller courts soon followed the ex- 
ample of the government of the country. The spirit 
which ruled the Council of State at Brussels soon dif- 
fused itself through the provinces. Bribery, indul- 
gences, robbery, venality of justice, were universal in 
the courts of judicature of the country ; morals degen- 
erated, and the new sects availed themselves of this 
all-pervading licentiousness to propagate their opinions. 
The religious indifference or toleration of the nobles, 
who, either themselves inclined to the side of the in- 
novators, or, at least, detested the Inquisition as an 
instrument of despotism, had mitigated the rigour of 
the religious edicts, and through the letters of indem- 
nity, which were bestowed on many Protestants, the 
holy office was deprived of its best victims. In no 
way could the nobility more agreeably announce to the 
nation its present share in the government of the coun- 
try than by sacrificing to it the hated tribunal of the 
Inquisition — and to this inclination impelled them 
still more than the dictates of pohcy. The nation 
passed in a moment from the most oppressive con- 
straint of intolerance into a state of freedom, to which, 
however, it had already become too unaccustomed to 
support it with moderation. The inquisitors, deprived 
of the support of the municipal authorities, found 
themselves an object of derision rather than of fear. 



Ii8 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

In Bruges the town council caused even some of their 
own servants to be placed in confinement, and kept on 
bread and water, for attempting to lay hands upon a 
supposed heretic. About this very time the mob in 
Antwerp, having made a futile attempt to rescue a 
person charged with heresy from the holy office, there 
was placarded in the pubHc market-place an inscrip- 
tion, written in blood, to the effect that a number of 
persons had bound themselves by oath to avenge the 
death of that innocent person. 

From the corruption which pervaded the whole 
Council of State, the privy council and the chamber 
of finance, in which Yiglius and Barlaimont were 
presidents, had as yet, for the most part, kept them- 
selves pure. 

As the faction could not succeed in insinuating 
their adherents into those two councils, the only course 
open to them was, if possible, to render both inefficient, 
and to transfer their business to the Council of State. 
To carry out this design the Prince of Orange sought 
to secure the cooperation of the other state counsellors. 
"They were called, indeed, senators," he frequently 
declared to his adherents, "but others possessed the 
power. If gold was wanted to pay the troops, or when 
the question was how the spreading heresy was to be 
repressed, or the people kept in order, then they were 
consulted ; although in fact they were the guardians 
neither of the treasury nor of the laws, but only the 
organs through which the other two councils operated 
on the state. And yet alone they were equal to the 
whole administration of the country, which had been 
uselessly portioned out amongst three separate cham- 
bers. If they would among themselves only agree 
to reunite to the Council of State these two important 
branches of government, which had been dissevered 
from it, one soul might animate the whole body." A 
plan was prehminarily and secretly agreed on, in accord- 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 119 

ance with which twelve new Knights of the Fleece 
were to be added to the Council of State, the adminis- 
tration of justice restored to the tribunal at Malines, 
to which it originally belonged, the granting of letters 
of grace, patents, and so forth, assigned to the presi- 
dent, Viglius, while the management of the finances 
should be committed to it. All the difficulties, indeed, 
which the distrust of the court and its jealousy of the 
increasing power of the nobility would oppose to this 
innovation were foreseen and provided against. In 
order to constrain the regent's assent, some of the 
principal officers of the army were put forward as a 
cloak, who were to annoy the court at Brussels with 
boisterous demands for their arrears of pay, and in 
case of refusal to threaten a rebellion. It was also 
contrived to have the regent assailed with numerous 
petitions and memorials complaining of the delays of 
justice, and exaggerating the danger which was to be 
apprehended from the daily growth of heresy. Noth- 
ing was omitted to darken the picture of the disorgan- 
ised state of society, of the abuse of justice, and of the 
deficiency in the finances, which was made so alarming 
that she awoke with terror from the delusion of pros- 
perity in which she had hitherto cradled herself. She 
called the three councils together to consult them on 
the means by which these disorders were to be rem- 
edied. The majority was in favour of sending an 
extraordinary ambassador to Spain, who by a circum- 
stantial and vivid delineation should make the king 
acquainted with the true position of affairs, and if 
possible prevail on him to adopt efficient measures 
of reform. This proposition was opposed by Viglius, 
who, however, had not the shghtest suspicion of the 
secret designs of the faction. "The evil complained 
of," he said, " is undoubtedly great, and one which can 
no longer be neglected with impunity, but it is not 
irremediable by ourselves. The administration of 



I20 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

justice is certainly crippled, but the blame of this lies 
with the nobles themselves ; by their contemptuous 
treatment they have thrown discredit on the municipal 
authorities, who, moreover, are very inadequately sup- 
ported by the governors of provinces. If heresy is on 
the increase it is because the secular arm has deserted 
the spiritual judges, and because the lower orders, fol- 
lowing the example of the nobles, have thrown off all 
respect for those in authority. The provinces are 
undoubtedly oppressed by a heavy debt, but it has not 
been accumulated, as alleged, by any malversation of 
the revenues, but by the expenses of former wars and 
the king's present exigences ; still wise and prudent 
measures of finance might in a short time remove the 
burden. If the Council of State would not be so pro- 
fuse of its indulgences, its charters of immunity, and 
its exemptions ; if it would commence the reformation 
of morals with itself, show greater respect to the laws, 
and do what lies in its power to restore to the munic- 
ipal functionaries their former consideration; in short, 
if the councils and the governors of provinces would 
only fulfil their own duties the present grounds of 
complaint would soon be removed. Why, then, send 
an ambassador to Spain, when as yet nothing has 
occurred to justify so extraordinary an expedient ? If, 
however, the council thinks otherwise, he would not 
oppose the general voice; only he must make it a 
condition of his concurrence that the principal instruc- 
tion of the envoy should be to entreat the king to make 
them a speedy visit." 

There was but one voice as to the choice of an envoy. 
Of all the Flemish nobles Count Egmont was the only 
one whose appointment would give equal satisfaction 
to both parties. His hatred of the Inquisition, his 
patriotic and liberal sentiments, and the unblemished 
integrity of his character, gave to the republic sufficient 
surety for his conduct, while for the reasons already 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 121 

mentioned he could not fail to be welcome to the king. 
Moreover, Egmont's personal figure and demeanour were 
calculated on his first appearance to make that favour- 
able impression which goes so far toward winning the 
hearts of princes; and his engaging carriage would 
come to the aid of his eloquence, and enforce his 
petition with those persuasive arts which are indis- 
pensable to the success of even the most trifling suits 
to royalty. Egmont himself, too, wished for the 
embassy, as it would afford him the opportunity of 
adjusting, personally, matters with his sovereign. 

About this time the Council, or rather synod, of 
Trent closed its sittings, and published its decrees to 
the whole of Christendom. But these canons, far from 
accompHshing the object for which the synod was 
originally convened, and satisfying the expectation of 
religious parties, had rather widened the breach be- 
tween them, and made the schism irremediable and 
eternal. 

The labours of the synod, instead of purifying the 
Eomish Church from its corruptions, had only reduced 
the latter to greater definiteness and precision, and 
invested them with the sanction of authority. All the 
subtilties of its teaching, all the arts and usurpations 
of the Roman See, which had hitherto rested more on 
arbitrary usage, were now passed into laws and raised 
into a system. The uses and abuses which during 
the barbarous times of ignorance and superstition had 
crept into Christianity were now declared essential 
parts of its worship, and anathemas were denounced 
upon all who should dare to contradict the dogmas or 
neglect the observances of the Romish communion. 
All were anathematised who should either presume 
to doubt the miraculous power of rehcs, and refuse to 
honour the bones of martyrs, or should be so bold as 
to doubt the availing efficacy of the intercession of 
saints. The power of granting indulgences, the first 



122 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

source of the defection from the See of Eome, was 
now propounded in an irrefragable article of faith ; and 
the principle of monasticism sanctioned by an express 
decree of the synod, which allowed males to take the 
vows at sixteen and females at twelve. And while all 
the opinions of the Protestants were, without excep- 
tion, condemned, no indulgence was shown to their 
errors or weaknesses, nor a single step taken to win 
them back by mildness to the bosom of the mother 
church. Amongst the Protestants the wearisome 
records of the subtle deliberations of the synod, and 
the absurdity of its decisions, increased, if possible, 
the hearty contempt which they had long entertained 
for popery, and laid open to their controversialists 
new and hitherto unnoticed points of attack. It 
was an ill-judged step to bring the mysteries of 
the Church too close to the glaring torch of reason, 
and to fight with syllogisms for the tenets of a blind 
belief. 

Moreover, the decrees of the Council of Trent were 
not satisfactory even to all the powers in communion 
with Eome. France rejected them entirely, both 
because she did not wish to displease the Huguenots, 
and also because she was offended by the suprem- 
acy which the Pope arrogated to himself over the 
council ; some of the Koman Catholic princes of Ger- 
many likewise declared against it. Little, however, 
as Philip II. was pleased with many of its articles, 
which trenched too closely upon his own rights, for no 
monarch was ever more jealous of his prerogative; 
highly as the Pope's assumption of control over the 
council, and its arbitrary, precipitate dissolution had 
offended him ; just as was his indignation at the slight 
which the Pope had put upon his ambassador; he 
nevertheless acknowledged the decrees of the synod, 
even in its present form, because it favoured his dar- 
ling object — the extirpation of heresy. Political con- 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 123 

siderations were all postponed to this one religious 
object, and he commanded the publication and enforce- 
ment of its canons throughout his dominions. 

The spirit of revolt, which was diffused through the 
Belgian provinces, scarcely required this new stimulus. 
There the minds of men were in a ferment, and the 
character of the Komish Church had sunk almost to 
the lowest point of contempt in the general opinion. 
Under such circumstances the imperious and frequently- 
injudicious decrees of the council could not fail of 
being highly offensive ; but Philip II. could not belie 
his religious character so far as to allow a different 
religion to a portion of his subjects, even though they 
might live on a different soil and under different laws 
from the rest. The regent was strictly enjoined to 
exact in the Netherlands the same obedience to the 
decrees of Trent which was yielded to them in Spain 
and Italy. 

They met, however, with the warmest opposition in 
the Council of State at Brussels. " The nation," Will- 
iam of Orange declared, " neither would nor could 
acknowledge them, since they were, for the most part, 
opposed to the fundamental principles of their consti- 
tution ; and, for similar reasons, they had even been 
rejected by several Eoman Catholic princes." The 
whole council nearly was on the side of Orange ; a 
decided majority were for entreating the king either to 
recall the decrees entirely or at least to publish them 
under certain limitations. This proposition was re- 
sisted by Viglius, who insisted on a strict and literal 
obedience to the royal commands. " The Church," he 
said, " had in all ages maintained the purity of its doc- 
trines and the strictness of its discipline by means of 
such general councils. No more efficacious remedy 
could be opposed to the errors of opinion which had so 
long distracted their country than these very decrees, 
the rejection of which is now urged by the Council of 



124 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

State. Even if they are occasionally at variance with 
the constitutional rights of the citizens, this is an evil 
which can easily be met by a judicious and temperate 
apphcation of them. For the rest it redounds to the 
honour of our sovereign, the King of Spain, that he 
alone, of all the princes of his time, refuses to yield his 
better judgment to necessity, and will not, for any fear 
of consequences, reject measures which the welfare of 
the Church demands, and which the happiness of his 
subjects makes a duty." 

But the decrees also contained several matters which 
affected the rights of the crown itself. Occasion was 
therefore taken of this fact to propose that these sec- 
tions at least should be omitted from the proclamation. 
By this means the king might, it was argued, be 
reheved from these obnoxious and degrading articles by 
a happy expedient ; the national Hberties of the Neth- 
erlands might be advanced as the pretext for the omis- 
sion, and the name of the repubhc lent to cover this 
encroachment on the authority of the synod. But the 
king had caused the decrees to be received and en- 
forced in his other dominions unconditionally ; and it 
was not to be expected that he would give the other 
Eoman Catholic powers such an example of opposition, 
and himself undermine the edifice whose foundation he 
had been so assiduous in laying. 



COUNT EGMONT IN SPAIN. 

Count Egmont was despatched to Spain to make a 
forcible representation to the king on the subject of 
these decrees ; to persuade him, if possible, to adopt a 
milder policy toward his Protestant subjects, and to 
propose to him the incorporation of the three councils, 
was the commission he received from the malcontents. 
By the regent he was charged to apprise the monarch 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 125 

of the refractory spirit of the people ; to convince him 
of the impossibihty of enforcing these edicts of religion 
in their full severity ; and lastly to acquaint him with 
the bad state of the military defences and the exhausted 
condition of the exchequer. 

The count's public instructions were drawn up by 
the President Viglius. They contained heavy com- 
plaints of the decay of justice, the growth of heresy, 
and the exhaustion of the treasury. He was also to 
press urgently a personal visit from the king to the 
Netherlands. The rest was left to the eloquence of 
the envoy, who received a hint from the regent not 
to let so fair an opportunity escape of establishing 
himself in the favour of his sovereign. 

The terms in which the count's instructions and the 
representations which he was to make to the king 
were drawn up appeared to the Prince of Orange far 
too vague and general. " The president's statement," 
he said, " of our grievances comes very far short of the 
truth. How can the king apply the suitable remedies 
if we conceal from him the full extent of the evil? 
Let us not represent the number of the heretics infe- 
rior to what it is in reality. Let us candidly acknowl- 
edge that they swarm in every province and in every 
hamlet, however small. Neither let us disguise from 
him the truth that they despise the penal statutes and 
entertain but little reverence for the government. What 
good can come of this concealment ? Let us rather 
openly avow to the king that the republic cannot long 
continue in its present condition. The privy council 
indeed will perhaps pronounce differently, for to them 
the existing disorders are welcome. Por what else is 
the source of the abuse of justice and the universal 
corruption of the courts of law but its insatiable rapac- 
ity ? How otherwise can the pomp and scandalous 
luxury of its members, whom we have seen rise from 
the dust, be supported if not by bribery ? Do not the 



126 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

people daily complain that no other key but gold can 
open an access to them ; and do not even their quar- 
rels prove how little they are swayed by a care for the 
common weal ? Are they likely to consult the public 
good who are the slaves of their private passions ? Do 
they think forsooth that we, the governors of the 
provinces, are, with our soldiers, to stand ready at 
the beck and call of an infamous lictor ? Let them set 
bounds to their indulgences and free pardons which 
they so lavishly bestow on the very persons to whom 
we think it just and expedient to deny them. 'No one 
can remit the punishment of a crime without sinning 
against the society and contributing to the increase of 
the general evil. To my mind, and I have no hesita- 
tion to avow it, the distribution amongst so many 
councils of the state secrets and the affairs of govern- 
ment has always appeared highly objectionable. The 
Council of State is sufficient for all the duties of the 
administration ; several patriots have already felt this 
in silence, and I now openly declare it. It is my 
decided conviction that the only sufficient remedy for 
all the evils complained of is to merge the other two 
chambers in the Council of State. This is the point 
which we must endeavour to obtain from the king, or 
the present embassy, like all others, will be entirely 
useless and ineffectual." The prince now laid before 
the assembled senate the plan which we have already 
described. VigHus, against whom this new proposition 
was individually and mainly directed, and whose eyes 
were now suddenly opened, was overcome by the vio- 
lence of his vexation. The agitation of his feelings 
was too much for his feeble body, and he was found, 
on the following morning, paralysed by apoplexy, and 
in danger of his life. 

His place was supplied by Jaachim Hopper, a mem- 
ber of the privy council at Brussels, a man of old-fash- 
ioned morals and unblemished integrity, the president's 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 127 

most trusted and wortliiest friend.^ To meet the 
wishes of the Orange party he made some additions to 
the instructions of the ambassador, relating chiefly 
to the abolition of the Inquisition and the incorporation 
of the three councils, not so much with the consent of 
the regent as in the absence of her prohibition. Upon 
Count Egmont taking leave of the president, who had 
recovered from his attack, the latter requested him to 
procure in Spain permission to resign his appointment. 
His day, he declared, was past ; like the example of 
his friend and predecessor, Granvella, he wished to 
retire into the quiet of private life, and to anticipate 
the uncertainty of fortune. His genius warned him of 
impending storm, by which he could have no desire 
to be overtaken. 

Count Egmont embarked on his journey to Spain in 
January, 1565, and was received there with a kindness 
and respect which none of his rank had ever before 
experienced. The nobles of Castile, taught by the king's 
example to conquer their feelings, or rather, true to his 
policy, seemed to have laid aside their ancient grudge 
against the Flemish nobihty, and vied with one another 
in winning his heart by their affabihty. All his private 
matters were immediately settled to his wishes by the 
king, nay, even his expectations exceeded ; and during 
the whole period of his stay he had ample cause to 
boast of the hospitality of the monarch. The latter 
assured him in the strongest terms of his love for his 
Belgian subjects, and held out hopes of his acceding 
eventually to the general wish, and remitting somewhat 
of the severity of the reHgious edicts. At the same 
time, however, he appointed in Madrid a commission of 



1 Vita VigL §89. The person from whose memoirs I have al- 
ready drawn so many illustrations of the times of this epoch. His 
subsequent journey to Spain gave rise to the correspondence 
between him and the president, which is one of the most valuable 
documents for our histor}'. 



128 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

theologians to whom he propounded the question, " Is 
it necessary to grant to the provinces the religious toler- 
ation they demand ? " As the majority of them were 
of opinion that the peculiar constitution of the Nether- 
lands, and the fear of a rebelhon, might well excuse a 
degree of forbearance in their case, the question was 
repeated more pointedly. " He did not seek to know," 
he said, " if he might do so, but if he must." When 
the latter question was answered in the negative, he 
rose from his seat, and kneeling down before a crucifix 
prayed in these words : " Almighty Majesty, suffer me 
not at any time to fall so low as to consent to reign 
over those who reject thee ! " In perfect accordance 
with the spirit of this prayer were the measures which 
he resolved to adopt in the Netherlands. On the"article 
of religion this monarch had taken his resolution once 
for ever; urgent necessity might, perhaps, have con- 
strained him temporarily to suspend the execution of 
the penal statutes, but never, formally, to repeal them 
entirely, or even to modify them. In vain did Egmont 
represent to him that the public execution of the here- 
tics daily augmented the number of their followers, 
while the courage and even joy with which they met 
their death filled the spectators with the deepest admi- 
ration, and awakened in them high opinions of a doc- 
trine which could make such heroes of its disciples. 
This representation was not indeed lost upon the king, 
but it had a very different effect from what it was in- 
tended to produce. In order to prevent these seductive 
scenes, without, however, compromising the severity of 
the edicts, he fell upon an expedient, and ordered that 
in future the executions should take place in private. 
The answer of the king on the subject of the embassy 
was given to the count in writing, and addressed to the 
regent. The king, when he granted him an audience 
to take leave, did not omit to call him to account for 
his behaviour to Granvella, and alluded particularly to 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 129 

the livery invented in derision of the cardinal. Egmont 
protested that the whole affair had originated in a con- 
vivial joke, and nothing was further from their mean- 
ing than to derogate in the least from the respect that 
was due to royalty. " If he knew," he said, " that any 
individual among them had entertained such disloyal 
thoughts he himself would challenge him to answer 
for it with his life.*' 

At his departure the monarch made him a present 
of fifty thousand florins, and engaged, moreover, to 
furnish a portion for his daughter on her marriage. 
He also consigned to his care the young Farnese of 
Parma, whom, to gratify the regent, his mother, he was 
sending to Brussels. The king's pretended mildness, 
and his professions of regard for the Belgian nation, 
deceived the open-hearted Fleming. Happy in the idea 
of being the bearer of so much felicity to his native 
country, when in fact it was more remote than ever, he 
quitted Madrid satisfied beyond measure to think of the 
joy with which the provinces would welcome the mes- 
sage of their good king ; but the opening of the royal 
answer in the Council of State at Brussels disappointed 
all these pleasing hopes. " Although in regard to the 
religious edicts," this was its tenor, " his resolve was 
firm and immovable, and he would rather lose a thou- 
sand lives than consent to alter a single letter of it, 
still, moved by the representations of Count Egmont, 
he was, on the other hand, equally determined not to 
leave any gentle means untried to guard the people 
against the delusions of heresy, and so to avert from 
them that punishment which must otherwise infallibly 
overtake them. As he had now learned from the count 
that the principal source of the existing errors in the 
faith was in the moral depravity of the clergy, the bad 
instruction and the neglected education of the young, 
he hereby empowered the regent to appoint a special 
commission of three bishops, and a convenient number 



130 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

of learned theologians, whose business it should be to 
consult about the necessary reforms, in order that the 
people might no longer be led astray through scandal, 
nor plunge into error through ignorance. As, moreover, 
he had been informed that the public executions of the 
heretics did but afford them an opportunity of boast- 
fully displaying a foolhardy courage, and of deluding 
the common herd by an affectation of the glory of 
martyrdom, the commission was to devise means for 
putting in force the final sentence of the Inquisition 
with greater privacy, and thereby depriving condemned 
heretics of the honour of their obduracy." In order, 
however, to provide against the commission going be- 
yond its prescribed limits Philip expressly required 
that the Bishop of Ypres, a man whom he could rely 
on as a determined zealot for the Eomish faith, should 
be one of the body. Their deliberations were to be 
conducted, if possible, in secrecy, while the object pub- 
licly assigned to them should be the introduction of the 
Tridentine decrees. For this his motive seems to have 
been twofold ; on the one hand, not to alarm the court 
of Rome by the assembling of a private council ; nor, 
on the other, to afford any encouragement to the spirit 
of rebellion in the provinces. At its sessions the duch- 
ess was to preside, assisted by some of the more loyally 
disposed of her counsellors, and regularly transmit to 
Philip a written account of its transactions. To meet 
her most pressing wants he sent her a small supply in 
money. He also gave her hopes of a visit from him- 
self ; first, however, it was necessary that the war with 
the Turks, who were then expected in hostile force 
before Malta, should be terminated. As to the pro- 
posed augmentation of the Council of State, and its 
union with the privy council and chamber of finance, 
it was passed over in perfect silence. The Duke of 
Aerschot, however, who is already known to us as a 
zealous royalist, obtained a voice and seat in the latter. 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 131 

Viglius, indeed, was allowed to retire from the presi- 
dency of the privy council, but he was obliged, never- 
theless, to continue to discharge its duties for four more 
years, because his successor, Carl Tyssenaque, of the 
council for Netherlandish affairs in Madrid, could not 
sooner be spared. 

SEVERER RELIGIOUS EDICTS — UNIVERSAL OPPOSITION 
OF THE NATION. 

Scarcely was Egmont returned when severer edicts 
against heretics, which, as it were, pursued him from 
Spain, contradicted the joyful tidings which he had 
brought of a happy change in the sentiments of the 
monarch. They were at the same time accompanied 
with a transcript of the decrees of Trent, as they were 
acknowledged in Spain, and were now to be proclaimed 
in the Netherlands also ; with it came likewise the 
death-warrants of some Anabaptists and other kinds of 
heretics. " The count has been beguiled," William the 
Silent was now heard to say, " and deluded by Spanish 
cunning. Self-love and vanity have blinded his pene- 
tration ; for his own advantage he has forgotten the 
general welfare." The treachery of the Spanish minis- 
try was now exposed, and this dishonest proceeding 
roused the indignation of the noblest in the land. But 
no one felt it more acutely than Count Egmont, who 
now perceived himself to have been the tool of Spanish 
duplicity, and to have become unwittingly the betrayer 
of his own country. " These specious favours then," he 
exclaimed, loudly and bitterly, " were nothing but an 
artifice to expose me to the ridicule of my fellow citi- 
zens, and to destroy my good name. If this is the 
fashion after which the king purposes to keep the prom- 
ises which he made to me in Spain, let who will take 
Flanders ; for my part, I will prove by my retirement 
from public business that I have no share in this breach 



132 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

of faith." In fact, the Spanish ministry could not have 
adopted a surer method of breaking the credit of so 
important a man than by exhibiting him to his fellow 
citizens, who adored him, as one whom they had suc- 
ceeded in deluding. 

Meanwhile the commission had been appointed, and 
had unanimously come to the following decision : 
" Whether for the moral reformation of the clergy, or 
for the religious instruction of the people, or for the 
education of youth, such abundant provision had 
already been made in the decrees of Trent that noth- 
ing now was requisite but to put these decrees in force 
as speedily as possible. The imperial edicts against 
the heretics already ought on no account to be recalled 
or modified ; the courts of justice, however, might be 
secretly instructed to punish with death none but 
obstinate heretics or preachers, to make a difference 
between the different sects, and to show consideration 
to the age, rank, sex, or disposition of the accused. If 
it were really the case that public executions did but 
inflame fanaticism, then, perhaps, the unheroic, less 
observed, but still equally severe punishment of the 
galleys, would be well-adapted to bring down all high 
notions of martyrdom. As to the delinquencies which 
might have arisen out of mere levity, curiosity, and 
thoughtlessness, it would perhaps be sufficient to punish 
them by fines, exile, or even corporal chastisement." 

During these deliberations, which, moreover, it was 
requisite to submit to the king at Madrid, and to wait 
for the notification of his approval of them, the time 
passed away unprofitably, the proceedings against the 
sectaries being either suspended, or at least conducted 
very supinely. Since the recall of Granvella the dis- 
union which prevailed in the higher councils, and 
from thence had extended to the provincial courts 
of justice, combined with the mild feehngs generally of 
the nobles on the subject of religion, had raised the 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 133 

courage of the sects, and allowed free scope to the 
proselytising mania of their apostles. The inquisitors, 
too, had fallen into contempt in consequence of the 
secular arm withdrawing its support, and in many 
places even openly taking their victims under its pro- 
tection. The Eoman Catholic part of the nation had 
formed great expectations from the decrees of the 
synod of Trent, as well as from Egmont's embassy 
to Spain ; but in the latter case their hopes had 
scarcely been justified by the joyous tidings which 
the count had brought back, and, in the integrity of 
his heart, left nothing undone to make known as 
widely as possible. The more disused the nation 
had become to severity in matters pertaining to relig- 
ion the more acutely was it likely to feel the sudden 
adoption of even still more rigorous measures. In 
this position of affairs the royal rescript arrived from 
Spain in answer to the proposition of the bishops and 
the last despatches of the regent. " Whatever inter- 
pretation " (such was its tenor) " Count Egmont may 
have given to the king's verbal communications, it 
had never in the remotest manner entered his mind 
to think of altering in the sHghtest degree the penal 
statutes which the emperor, his father, had five and 
thirty years ago published in the provinces. These 
edicts he therefore commanded should henceforth be 
carried rigidly into effect, the Inquisition should re- 
ceive the most active support from the secular arm, 
and the decrees of the council of Trent be irrevocably 
and unconditionally acknowledged in all the provinces 
of his Netherlands. He acquiesced fully in the opin- 
ion of the bishops and canonists as to the sufficiency 
of the Tridentine decrees as guides in all points of 
reformation of the clergy or instruction of the people ; 
but he could not concur with them as to the miti- 
gation of punishment which they proposed in con- 
sideration either of the age, sex, or characters of 



134 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

individuals, since he was of opinion that his edicts 
were in no degree wanting in moderation. To noth- 
ing but want of zeal and disloyalty on the part of 
judges could he ascribe the progress which heresy 
had already made in the country. In future, there- 
fore, whoever among them should be thus wanting 
in zeal must be removed from his office and make 
room for a more honest judge. The Inquisition ought 
to pursue its appointed path firmly, fearlessly, and 
dispassionately, without regard to or consideration of 
human feelings, and was to look neither before nor 
behind. He would always be ready to approve of 
all its measures, however extreme, if it only avoided 
public scandal." 

This letter of the king, to which the Orange party 
have ascribed all the subsequent troubles of the 
Netherlands, caused the most violent excitement 
amongst the state counsellors, and the expressions 
which in society they either accidentally or inten- 
tionally let fall from them with regard to it spread 
terror and alarm amongst the people. The dread of 
the Spanish Inquisition returned with new force, and 
with it came fresh apprehensions of the subversion 
of their liberties. Already the people fancied they 
could hear prisons building, chains and fetters forg- 
ing, and see piles of fagots collecting. Society was 
occupied with this one theme of conversation, and fear 
kept no longer within bounds. Placards were affixed 
to houses of the nobles in which they were called 
upon, as formerly Eome called on her Brutus, to 
come forward and save expiring freedom. Biting 
pasquinades were published against the new bishops — 
tormentors as they were called ; the clergy were rid- 
iculed in comedies, and abuse spared the throne as 
little as the Eomish see. 

Terrified by the rumours which were afloat, the 
regent called together all the counsellors of state to 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 135 

consult them on the course she ought to adopt in 
this perilous crisis. Opinion varied and disputes 
were violent. Undecided between fear and duty, they 
hesitated to come to a conclusion, until at last the 
aged senator, Viglius, rose and surprised the whole 
assembly by his opinion. " It would," he said, " be 
the height of folly in us to think of promulgating 
the royal edict at the present moment; the king 
must be informed of the reception which, in all 
probability, it will now meet. In the meantime the 
inquisitors must be enjoined to use their power with 
moderation, and to abstain from severity." But if 
these words of the aged president surprised the whole 
assembly, still greater was the astonishment when the 
Prince of Orange stood up and opposed his advice. 
" The royal will," he said, " is too clearly and too 
precisely stated; it is the result of too long and too 
mature deliberation for us to venture to delay its exe- 
cution without bringing on ourselves the reproach 
of the most culpable obstinacy." "That I take on 
myself," interrupted Viglius ; " I oppose myself to his 
displeasure. If by this delay we purchase for him 
the peace of the Netherlands our opposition will 
eventually secure for us the lasting gratitude of the 
king." The regent already began to incline to the 
advice of Vighus, when the prince vehemently inter- 
posing, " What," he demanded, " what have the many 
representations which we have already made effected ? 
of what avail was the embassy we so lately des- 
patched ? Nothing ! And what then do we wait 
for more ? Shall we, his state counsellors, bring upon 
ourselves the whole weight of his displeasure by de- 
termining, at our own peril, to render him a service 
for which he will never thank us ? " Undecided and 
uncertain, the whole assembly remained silent ; but 
no one had courage enough to assent to or reply to 
him. But the prince had appealed to the fears of the 



136 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

regent, and these left her no choice. The conse- 
quences of her unfortunate obedience to the king's 
command will soon appear. But, on the other hand, 
if by a wise disobedience she had avoided these fatal 
consequences, is it clear that the result would not have 
been the same ? However, she had adopted the most 
fatal of the two counsels: happen what would, the 
royal ordinance was to be promulgated. This time, 
therefore, faction prevailed, and the advice of the 
only true friend of the government, who, to serve 
his monarch, was ready to incur his displeasure, was 
disregarded. With this session terminated the peace 
of the regent; from this day the Netherlands dated 
all the trouble which uninterruptedly visited their 
country. As the counsellors separated the Prince of 
Orange said to one who stood nearest to him, " Now 
will soon be acted a great tragedy." ^ 

iThe conduct of the Prince of Orange in this meeting of the 
council has been appealed to by historians of the Spanish party 
as a proof of his dishonesty, and they have availed themselves over 
and over again to blacken his character. " He," say they, " who 
had, invariably up to this period, both by word and deed, opposed 
the measures of the court so long as he had any ground to fear 
that the king's measures could be successfully carried out, sup- 
ported them now for the first time when he was convinced that a 
scrupulous obedience to the royal orders would inevitably preju- 
dice him. In order to convince the king of his folly in disregard- 
ing his warnings ; in order to be able to boast, ' This I foresaw,' 
and 'I foretold that,' he was willing to risk the welfare of his 
nation, for which alone he had hitherto professed to struggle. 
The whole tenor of his previous conduct proved that he held the 
enforcement of the edicts to be an evil ; nevertheless, he at once 
becomes false to his own convictions and follows an opposite 
course ; although, so far as the nation was concerned, the same 
grounds existed as had dictated his former measures ; and he 
changed his conduct simply that the result might be different to 
the king." "It is clear, therefore," continue his adversaries, 
"that the welfare of the nation had less weight with him than 
his animosity to his sovereign. In order to gratify his hatred 
to the latter he does not hesitate to sacrifice the former." But is 
it then true that by calling for the promulgation of these edicts he 
sacrificed the nation ? or, to speak more correctly, did he carry 
the edicts into effect by insisting on their promulgation ? Can it 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 137 

An edict, therefore, was issued to all the governors 
of provinces, commanding them rigorously to enforce 
the mandates of the emperor against heretics, as well 
as those which had been passed under the present 
government, the decrees of the council of Trent, and 
those of the episcopal commission, which had lately 
sat to give all the aid of the civil force to the Inquisi- 
tion, and also to enjoin a similar line of conduct on the 
officers of government under them. More effectually 
to secure their object, every governor was to select 
from his own council an efficient officer who should 
frequently make the circuit of the province and insti- 
tute strict inquiries into the obedience shown by the 
inferior officers to these commands, and then transmit 
quarterly to the capital an exact report of their visita- 
tion. A copy of the Tridentine decrees, according to 
the Spanish original, was also sent to the archbishops 
and bishops, with an intimation that, in case of their 
needing the assistance of the secular power, the gov- 
ernors of their diocese, with their troops, were placed 
at their disposal. Against these decrees no privilege 

not, on the contrary, he shown with far more probability that this 
was really the only way effectually to frustrate them ? The 
nation was in a ferment, and the indignant people would (there was 
reason to expect, and as Viglius himself seems to have appre- 
hended) show so decided a spirit of opposition as must compel 
the king to yield. "Now," says Orange, "my country feels all 
the impulse necessary for it to contend successfully with tyranny ! 
If I neglect the present moment the tyrant will, by secret negotia- 
tion and intrigue, find means to obtain by stealth what by open 
force he could not. The same object will be steadily pursued, 
only with greater caution and forbearance ; but extremity alone 
can combine the people to unity of purpose, and move them to 
bold measures." It is clear, therefore, that with regard to the 
king the prince did but change his language only ; but that as far 
as the people were concerned his conduct was perfectly consistent. 
And what duties did he owe the king apart from those he owed 
the republic ? Was he to oppose an arbitrary act in the very 
moment when it was about to entrail a just retribution on its 
author ? "Would he have done his duty to his country if he had 
deterred its oppressor from a precipitate step which alone could 
save it from its otherwise unavoidable misery ? 



138 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

was to avail ; however, the king willed and commanded 
that the particular territorial rights of the provinces 
and towns should in no case be infringed. 

These commands, which were publicly read in every 
town by a herald, produced an effect on the people 
which in the fullest manner verified the fears of the 
President Vighus and the hopes of the Prince of 
Orange. Nearly all the governors of provinces refused 
comphance with them, and threatened to throw up 
their appointments if the attempt should be made to 
compel their obedience. " The ordinance," they wrote 
back, " was based on a statement of the numbers of 
the' sectaries, which was altogether false.^ Justice 
was appalled at the prodigious crowd of victims which 
daily accumulated under its hands; to destroy by the 
flames fifty thousand or sixty thousand persons from 
their districts was no commission for them." The 
inferior clergy too, in particular, were loud in their 
outcries against the decrees of Trent, which cruelly 
assailed their ignorance and corruption, and which 
moreover threatened them with a reform they so much 
detested. Sacrificing, therefore, the highest interests 
of their church to their own private advantage, they 
bitterly revived the decrees and the whole council, and 
with liberal hand scattered the seeds of revolt in the 
minds of the people. The same outcry was now re- 
vived which the monks had formerly raised against 
the new bishops. The Archbishop of Cambray suc- 

1 The number of the heretics was very unequally computed by 
the two parties, according as the interests and passions of either 
made its increase or diminution desirable, and the same party 
often contradicted itself when its interest changed. If the ques- 
tion related to new measiires of oppression, to the introduction 
of the inquisitional tribunals, etc., the numbers of the Protestants 
were countless and interminable. If, on the other hand, the ques- 
tion was of lenity toward them, of ordinances to their advantage, 
they were now reduced to such an insignificant number that it 
would not repay the trouble of making an innovation for this 
small body of ill-minded people. 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 139 

ceeded at last, but not without great opposition, in 
causing the decrees to be proclaimed. It cost more 
labour to effect this in Malines and Utrecht, where the 
archbishops were at strife with their clergy, who, as 
they were accused, preferred to involve the whole 
Church in ruin rather than submit to a reformation 
of morals. 

Of all the provinces Brabant raised its voice the 
loudest. The states of this province appealed to their 
great privilege, which protected their members from 
being brought before a foreign court of justice. They 
spoke loudly of the oath by which the king had bound 
himseK to observe all their statutes, and of the condi- 
tions under which they alone had sworn allegiance to 
him. Louvain, Antwerp, Brussels, and Herzogenbusch 
solemnly protested against the decrees, and trans- 
mitted their protests in distinct memorials to the 
regent. The latter, always hesitating and wavering, 
too timid to obey the king, and far more afraid to 
disobey him, again summoned her council, again lis- 
tened to the arguments for and against the question, 
and at last again gave her assent to the opinion which 
of all others was the most perilous for her to adopt. 
A new reference to the king in Spain was proposed ; 
the next moment it was asserted that so urgent a crisis 
did not admit of so dilatory a remedy; it was neces- 
sary for the regent to act on her own responsibility, 
and either defy the threatening aspect of despair, or 
to yield to it by modifying or retracting the royal 
ordinance. She finally caused the annals of Brabant 
to be examined in order to discover if possible a prec- 
edent for the present case in the instructions of the 
first inquisitor whom Charles V. had appointed to the 
province. These instructions indeed did not exactly 
correspond with those now given; but had not the 
king declared that he introduced no innovation ? This 
was precedent enough, and it was declared that the 



I40 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

new edicts must also be interpreted, in accordance 
with the old and existing statutes of the province. 
This explanation gave indeed no satisfaction to the 
states of Brabant, who had loudly demanded the entire 
abolition of the inquisition, but it was an encourage- 
ment to the other provinces to make similar protests 
and an equally bold opposition. Without giving the 
duchess time to decide upon their remonstrances, they, 
on their own authority, ceased to obey the Inquisition, 
and withdrew their aid from it. The inquisitors, who 
had so recently been expressly urged to a more rigid 
execution of their duties, now saw themselves suddenly 
deserted by the secular arm, and robbed of all author- 
ity, while in answer to their application for assistance 
the court could give them only empty promises. The 
regent by thus endeavouring to satisfy all parties had 
displeased all. 

During these negotiations between the court, the 
councils, and the states a universal spirit of revolt 
pervaded the whole nation. Men began to investigate 
the rights of the subject, and to scrutinise the preroga- 
tive of kings. " The Netherlanders were not so stupid," 
many were heard to say with very little attempt at 
secrecy, " as not to know right well what was due 
from the subject to the sovereign, and from the king 
to the subject ; and that perhaps means would yet be 
found to repel force with force, although at present 
there might be no appearance of it." In Antwerp a 
placard was set up in several places calling upon the 
town council to accuse the King of Spain before the 
supreme court at Spires of having broken his oath and 
violated the liberties of the country, for, Brabant being 
a portion of the Burgundian circle, was included in 
the religious peace of Passau and Augsburg. About 
this time too the Calvinists published their confession 
of faith, and, in a preamble addressed to the king, de- 
clared that they, although a hundred thousand strong, 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 141 

kept themselves nevertheless quiet, and; like the rest 
of his subjects, contributed to all the taxes of the 
country ; from which it was evident, they added, that 
of themselves they entertained no ideas of insurrection. 
Bold and incendiary writings were pubhcly dissemi- 
nated, which depicted the Spanish tyranny in the most 
odious colours, and reminded the nation of its privileges, 
and occasionally also of its power s.^ 

The warlike preparations of Philip against the Porte, 
as well as those which, for no intelligible reason, Eric, 
Duke of Brunswick, about this time made in the vi- 
cinity, contributed to strengthen the general suspicion 
that the Inquisition was to be forcibly imposed on 
the Netherlands. Many of the most eminent mer- 
chants already spoke of quitting their houses and 
business to seek in some other part of the world the 
liberty of which they were here deprived ; others looked 
about for a leader, and let fall hints of forcible resist- 
ance and of foreign aid. 

That in this distressing position of affairs the regent 
might be left entirely without an adviser and without 
support, she was now deserted by the only person who 
was at the present moment indispensable to her and 
who had contributed to plunge her into this embarrass- 
ment. " Without kindling a civil war," vn:ote to her 
Wilham of Orange, " it was absolutely impossible to 
comply now with the orders of the king. If, however, 
obedience was to be insisted upon, he must beg that 
his place might be supplied by another who would 
better answer the expectations of his Majesty, and 

1 The regent mentioned to the king a number (three thousand) 
of these writings. — Strada 117. It is remarkable how important 
a part printing, and publicity in general, played in the rebellion 
of the Netherlands. Through this organ one restless spirit spoke 
to millions. Besides the lampoons, which for the most part were 
composed with all the low scurrility and brutality which was the 
distinguishing character of most of the Protestant polemical 
writings of the time, works were occasionally published which 
defended religious liberty in the fullest sense of the word. 



142 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

have more power than he had over the minds of the 
nation. The zeal which on every other occasion he 
had shown in the service of the crown, would, he 
hoped, secure his present proceeding from misconstruc- 
tion ; for, as the case now stood, he had no alternative 
between disobeying the king and injuring his country 
and himself." From this time forth William of Orange 
retired from the Council of State to his town of Breda, 
where in observant but scarcely inactive repose he 
watched the course of affairs. Count Horn followed 
his example. Egmont, ever vacillating between the 
republic and the throne, ever wearying himself in the 
vain attempt to unite the good citizen with the obedient 
subject — Egmont, who was less able than the rest 
to dispense with the favour of the monarch, and to 
whom, therefore, it was less an object of indifference, 
could not bring himself to abandon the bright prospects 
which were now opening for him at the court of the 
regent. The Prince of Orange had, by his superior 
intellect, gained an influence over the regent which 
great minds cannot fail to command from inferior 
spirits. His retirement had opened a void in her 
confidence which Count Egmont was now to fill by 
virtue of that sympathy which so naturally subsists 
between timidity, weakness, and good-nature. As she 
was as much afraid of exasperating the people by an 
exclusive confidence in the adherents to the crown, as 
she was fearful of displeasing the king by too close an 
understanding with the declared leaders of the faction, 
a better object for her confidence could now hardly 
be presented than this very Count Egmont, of whom 
it could not be said that he belonged to either of the 
two conflicting parties. 



BOOK III. 

CONSPIKACY OF THE NOBLES. 

(1565.) Up to this point the general peace had, it 
appears, been the sincere wish of the Prince of Orange, 
the Counts Egmont and Horn, and their friends. 
They had pursued the true interests of their sovereign 
as much as the general weal ; at least their exertions 
and their actions had been as little at variance with 
the former as with the latter. Nothing had as yet 
occurred to make their motives suspected, or to mani- 
fest in them a rebellious spirit. What they had done 
they had done in discharge of their bounden duty as 
members of a free state, as the representatives of the 
nation, as advisers of the king, as men of integrity 
and honour. The only weapons they had used to 
oppose the encroachments of the court had been re- 
monstrances, modest complaints, petitions. They had 
never allowed themselves to be so far carried away 
by a just zeal for their good cause as to transgress the 
limits of prudence and moderation which on many 
occasions are so easily overstepped by party spirit. 
But aU the nobles of the republic did not now listen 
to the voice of that prudence ; all did not abide within 
the bounds of moderation. 

While in the Council of State the great question 
was discussed whether the nation was to be miserable 
or not, while its sworn deputies summoned to theii- 
assistance all the arguments of reason and of equity, 
and while the middle classes and the people con- 

143 



144 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

tented themselves with empty complaints, menaces, 
and curses, that part of the nation which of all 
seemed least called upon, and on whose support 
least reliance had been placed, began to take more 
active measures. We have already described a class 
of the nobility whose services and wants Philip at 
his accession had not considered it necessary to re- 
member. Of these by far the greater number had 
asked for promotion from a much more urgent reason 
than a love of the mere honour. Many of them 
were deeply sunk in debt, from which by their own 
resources they could not hope to emancipate them- 
selves. When then, in filling up appointments, Philip 
passed them over, he wounded them in a point far 
more sensitive than their pride. In these suitors he 
had by his neglect raised up so many idle spies and 
merciless judges of his actions, so many collectors 
and propagators of malicious rumour. As their pride 
did not quit them with theii* prosperity, so now, driven 
by necessity, they trafficked with the sole capital 
which they could not alienate — their nobility and 
the political influence of their names ; and brought 
into circulation a coin which only in such a period 
could have found currency — their protection. With 
a self-pride to which they gave the more scope as it 
was all they could now call their own, they looked 
upon themselves as a strong intermediate power be- 
tween the sovereign and the citizens, and believed 
themselves called upon to hasten to the rescue of the 
oppressed state, which looked imploringly to them for 
succour. This idea was ludicrous only so far as their 
self-conceit was concerned in it ; the advantages which 
they contrived to draw from it were substantial enough. 
The Protestant merchants, who held in their hands the 
chief part of the wealth of the Netherlands, and who 
beheved they could not at any price purchase too 
dearly the undisturbed exercise of their religion, did 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 145 

not fail to make use of this class of people who stood 
idle in the market and ready to be hired. These very- 
men whom at any other time the merchants, in the 
pride of riches, would most probably have looked 
down upon, now appeared likely to do them good 
service through their numbers, their courage, their 
credit with the populace, their enmity to the govern- 
ment, nay, through their beggarly pride itself and 
their despair. On these grounds they zealously en- 
deavoured to form a close union with them, and dili- 
gently fostered the disposition for rebellion, while they 
also used every means to keep alive their high opin- 
ions of themselves, and, what was most important, 
lured their poverty by well-applied pecuniary assist- 
ance and glittering promises. Few of them were so 
utterly insignificant as not to possess some influence, if 
not personally, yet at least by their relationship with 
higher and more powerful nobles ; and if united they 
would be able to raise a formidable voice against the 
crown. Many of them had either already joined the 
new sect or were secretly inclined to it ; and even 
those who were zealous Eoman Catholics had political 
or private grounds enough to set them against the 
decrees of Trent and the Inquisition. All, in fine, felt 
the call of vanity sujBficiently powerful not to allow the 
only moment to escape them in which they might 
possibly make some figure in the republic. 

But much as might be expected from the coopera- 
tion of these men in a body, it would have been futile 
and ridiculous to build any hopes on any one of them 
singly; and the great difficulty was to effect a union 
among them. Even to bring them together some 
unusual occurrence was necessary, and fortunately 
such an incident presented itself. The nuptials of 
Baron Montigny, one of the Belgian nobles, as also 
those of the Prince Alexander of Parma, which took 
place about this time in Brussels, assembled in that 



146 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

town a great number of the Belgian nobles. On this 
occasion relations met relations ; new friendships were 
formed and old renewed; and while the distress of 
the country was the topic of conversation, wine and 
mirth unlocked lips and hearts, hints were dropped of 
union among themselves, and of an alliance with for- 
eign powers. These accidental meetings soon led 
to concealed ones, and public discussions gave rise to 
secret consultations. Two German barons, moreover, 
a Count of HoUe and a Count of Schwarzenberg, who 
at this time were on a visit to the Netherlands, omitted 
nothing to awaken expectations of assistance from their 
neighbours. Count Louis of Nassau, too, had also a 
short time before visited several German courts to 
ascertain their sentiments.^ It has even been asserted 
that secret emissaries of the Admiral Coligny were 
seen at this time in Brabant, but this, however, may 
be reasonably doubted. 

If ever a political crisis was favourable to an 
attempt at revolution it was the present. A woman 
at the helm of government ; the governors of prov- 
inces disaffected themselves and disposed to wink at 
insubordination in others ; most of the state coun- 
sellors quite inefficient ; no army to fall back upon ; 
the few troops there were long since discontented on 
account of the outstanding arrears of pay, and already 
too often deceived by false promises to be enticed by 
new; commanded, moreover, by officers who despised 
the Inquisition from their hearts, and would have 
blushed to draw a sword in its behalf; and, lastly, 
no money in the treasury to enlist new troops or to 
hire foreigners. The court at Brussels, as well as the 
three councils, not only divided by internal dissen- 

1 It was not without cause that the Prince of Orange suddenly- 
disappeared from Brussels in order to be present at the election 
of a king of Rome in Frankfort. An assembly of so many 
German princes must have greatly favoured a negotiation. 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 147 

sions, but in the highest degree venal and corrupt; 
the regent without full powers to act on the spot, 
and the king at a distance; his adherents in the 
provinces few, uncertain, and dispirited; the faction 
numerous and powerful; two-thirds of the people 
irritated against popery and desirous of a change — 
such wag the unfortunate weakness of the govern- 
ment, and the more unfortunate still that this weak- 
ness was so well known to its enemies ! 

In order to unite so many minds in the prosecution 
of a common object a leader was still wanting, and a 
few influential names to give political weight to their 
enterprise. The two were supplied by Count Louis of 
Nassau and Henry Count Brederode, both members 
of the most illustrious houses of the Belgian nobility, 
who voluntarily placed themselves at the head of the 
undertaking. Louis of Nassau, brother of the Prince 
of Orange, united many splendid qualities which made 
him worthy of appearing on so noble and important a 
stage. In Geneva, where he studied, he had imbibed 
at once a hatred to the hierarchy and a love to the 
new religion, and, on his return to his native country, 
had not failed to enlist proselytes to his opinions. 
The republican bias which his mind had received in 
that school kindled in him a bitter hatred of the 
Spanish name, which animated his whole conduct and 
only left him with his latest breath. Popery and 
Spanish rule were in his mind identical — as indeed 
they were in reality — and the abhorrence which he 
entertained for the one helped to strengthen his dislike 
for the other. Closely as the brothers agreed in their 
inclinations and aversions, the ways by which each 
sought to gratify them were widely dissimilar. Youth 
and an ardent temperament did not allow the younger 
brother to follow the tortuous course through which 
the elder wound himself to his object. A cold, calm 
circumspection carried the latter slowly but surely to 



148 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

his aim, and with a pliable subtilty he made all things 
subserve his purpose; with a foolhardy impetuosity 
which overthrew all obstacles, the other at times com- 
pelled success, but oftener accelerated disaster. For 
this reason William was a general and Louis never 
more than an adventurer; a sure and powerful arm 
if only it were directed by a wise head. Louis's pledge 
once given was good for ever; his alliances survived 
every vicissitude, for they were mostly formed in the 
pressing moment of necessity, and misfortune binds 
more firmly than thoughtless joy. He loved his 
brother as dearly as he did his cause, and for the 
latter he died. 

Henry of Brederode, Baron of Viane and Burgrave 
of Utrecht, was descended from the old Dutch counts 
who formerly ruled that province as sovereign princes. 
So ancient a title endeared him to the people, among 
whom the memory of their former lords still survived, 
and was the more treasured the less they felt they had 
gained by the change. This hereditary splendour in- 
creased the self-conceit of a man upon whose tongue 
the glory of his ancestors continually hung, and who 
dwelt the more on former greatness, even amidst its 
ruins, the more unpromising the aspect of his own 
condition became. Excluded from the honours and 
employments to which, in his opinion, his own merits 
and his noble ancestry fully entitled him (a squadron 
of hght cavalry being all which was entrusted to him), 
he hated the government, and did not scruple boldly 
to canvass and to rail at its measures. By these 
means he won the hearts of the people. He also 
favoured in secret the evangelical belief; less, how- 
ever, as a conviction of his better reason than as an 
opposition to the government. With more loquacity 
than eloquence, and more audacity than courage, he 
was brave rather from not believing in danger than 
from being superior to it. Louis of Nassau burned for 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 149 

the cause which he defended, Brederode for the glory 
of being its defender ; the former was satisfied in 
acting for his party, the latter discontented if he did 
not stand at its head. No one was more fit to lead off 
the dance in a rebelhon, but it could hardly have a 
worse ballet-master. Contemptible as his threatened 
designs really were, the illusion of the multitude might 
have imparted to them weight and terror if it had 
occurred to them to set up a pretender in his person. 
His claim to the possessions of his ancestors was an 
empty name ; but even a name was now sufficient for 
the general disaffection to rally around. A pamphlet 
which was at the time disseminated amongst the 
people openly called him the heir of Holland ; and his 
engraved portrait, which was publicly exhibited, bore 
the boastful inscription : 

" Sum Brederodus ego, Batavse non infima gentis 
Gloria, vhtutem non unica pagina claudit." 

(1565.) Besides these two, there were others also 
from among the most illustrious of the Flemish 
nobles : the young Count Charles of Mansfeld, a son 
of that nobleman whom we have found among the 
most zealous royalists ; the Count Kinlemburg ; two 
Counts of Bergen and of Battenburg ; John of Marnix, 
Baron of Toulouse ; Philip of Marnix, Baron of St. 
Aldegonde ; with several others who joined the league, 
which, about the middle of November, in the year 
1565, was formed at the house of Von Hammes, king 
at arms of the Golden Fleece. Here it was that six 
men decided the destiny of their country (as formerly 
a few confederates consummated the liberty of Swit- 
zerland), kindled the torch of a forty years* war, and 
laid the basis of a freedom which they themselves 
were never to enjoy. The objects of the league were 
set forth in the following declaration, to which Philip 



150 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

of Marnix was the first to subscribe his name : 
" Whereas certain ill-disposed persons, under the mask 
of a pious zeal, but in reality under the impulse of 
avarice and ambition, have by their evil counsels 
persuaded our most gracious sovereign the king to 
introduce into these countries the abominable tri- 
bunal of the Inquisition, a tribunal diametrically 
opposed to all laws, human and divine, and in cruelty 
far surpassing the barbarous institutions of heathen- 
ism; which raises the inquisitors above every other 
power, and debases man to a perpetual bondage, and 
by its snares exposes the honest citizen to a con- 
stant fear of death, inasmuch as any one (priest, it 
may be, or a faithless friend, a Spaniard or a repro- 
bate) has it in his power at any moment to cause 
whom he will to be dragged before that tribunal, to be 
placed in confinement, condemned, and executed with- 
out the accused ever being allowed to face his accuser, 
or to adduce proof of his innocence ; we, therefore, the 
undersigned, have bound ourselves to watch over the 
safety of our famihes, our estates, and our own persons. 
To this we hereby pledge ourselves, and to this end 
bind ourselves as a sacred fraternity, and vow with a 
solemn oath to oppose to the best of our power the 
introduction of this tribunal into these countries, 
whether it be attempted openly or secretly, and under 
whatever name it may be disguised. We at the same 
time declare that we are far from intending anything 
unlawful against the king our sovereign; rather is it 
our unalterable purpose to support and defend the 
royal prerogative, and to maintain peace, and, as far 
as lies in our power, to put down all rebelHon. In 
accordance with this purpose we have sworn, and now 
again swear, to hold sacred the government, and to 
respect it both in word and deed, which witness 
Almighty God ! 

" Further, we vow and swear to protect and defend 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 151 

one another, in all times and places, against all attacks 
whatsoever touching the articles which are set forth in 
this covenant. We hereby bind ourselves that no ac- 
cusation of any of our followers, in whatever name it 
may be clothed, whether rebelhon, sedition, or other- 
wise, shall avail to annul our oath toward the accused, 
or absolve us from our obligation toward him. No act 
which is directed against the Inquisition can deserve 
the name of a rebelhon. Whoever, therefore, shall be 
placed in arrest on any such charge, we here pledge 
ourselves to assist him to the utmost of our ability, 
and to endeavour by every allowable means to effect 
his liberation. In this, however, as in all matters, but 
especially in the conduct of all measures against the 
tribunal of the Inquisition, we submit ourselves to 
the general regulations of the league, or to the deci- 
sion of those whom we may unanimously appoint our 
counsellors and leaders. 

" In witness hereof, and in confirmation of this our 
common league and covenant, we call upon the holy 
name of the living God, maker of heaven and earth, 
and of all that are therein, who searches the hearts, 
the consciences, and the thoughts, and knows the 
purity of ours. We implore the aid of the Holy 
Spirit, that success and honour may crown our under- 
taking, to the glory of his name, and to the peace and 
blessing of our country ! " 

This covenant was immediately translated into 
several languages, and quickly disseminated through 
the provinces. To swell the league as speedily as 
possible, each of the confederates assembled all his 
friends, relations, adherents, and retainers. Great 
banquets were held, which lasted whole days — irre- 
sistible temptations for a sensual, luxurious people, in 
whom the deepest wretchedness could not stifle the 
propensity for voluptuous living. Whoever repaired 
to these banquets — and every one was welcome — 



152 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

was plied with officious assurances of friendship, and, 
when heated with wine, carried away by the example 
of numbers, and overcome by the fire of a wild elo- 
quence. The hands of many were guided while they 
subscribed their signatures ; the hesitating were de- 
rided, the pusillanimous threatened, the scruples of 
loyalty clamoured down ; some even were quite igno- 
rant what they were signing, and were ashamed after- 
ward to inquire. To many whom mere levity brought 
to the entertainment the general enthusiasm left no 
choice, while the splendour of the confederacy allured 
the mean, and its numbers encouraged the timorous. 
The abettors of the league had not scrupled at the arti- 
fice of counterfeiting the signature and seals of the Prince 
of Orange, Counts Egmont, Horn, Megen, and others, 
a trick which won them hundreds of adherents. This 
was done especially with a view of influencing the 
officers of the army, in order to be safe in this quarter, 
if matters should come at last to violence. The de- 
vice succeeded with many, especially with subalterns, 
and Count Brederode even drew his sword upon an 
ensign who wished time for consideration. Men of 
all classes and conditions signed it. Eeligion made no 
difference. Eoman Cathohc priests even were associ- 
ates of the league. The motives were not the same 
with all, but the pretext was similar. The Eoman 
Catholics desired simply the abolition of the Inquisi- 
tion, and a mitigation of the edicts ; the Protestants 
aimed at unlimited freedom of conscience. A few 
daring spirits only entertained so bold a project as the 
overthrow of the present government, while the needy 
and indigent based the vilest hopes on a general 
anarchy. A farewell entertainment, which about this 
time was given to the Counts Schwarzenberg and 
Holle in Breda, and another shortly afterward in Hog- 
straten, drew many of the principal nobility to these 
two places, and of these several had already signed 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 153 

the covenant. The Prince of Orange, Counts Egmont, 
Horn, and Megen were present at the latter banquet, 
but without any concert or design, and without having 
themselves any share in the league, although one of 
Egmont's own secretaries and some of the servants 
of the other three noblemen had openly joined it. At 
this entertainment three hundred persons gave in their 
adhesion to the covenant, and the question was mooted 
whether the whole body should present themselves 
before the regent armed or unarmed, with a declaration 
or with a petition ? Horn and Orange (Egmont would 
not countenance the business in any way) were called 
in as arbiters upon this point, and they decided in 
favour of the more moderate and submissive procedure. 
By taking this office upon them they exposed them- 
selves to the charge of having in no very covert 
manner lent their sanction to the enterprise of the 
confederates. In compliance, therefore, with their 
advice, it was determined to present their address 
unarmed, and in the form of a petition, and a day was 
appointed on which they should assemble in Brussels. 
The first intimation the regent received of this con- 
spiracy of the nobles was given by the Count of 
Megen soon after his return to the capital. " There 
was," he said, " an enterprise on foot ; no less than 
three hundred of the nobles were imphcated in it ; it 
referred to rehgion ; the members of it had bound 
themselves together by an oath ; they reckoned much 
on foreign aid ; she would soon know more about it." 
Though urgently pressed, he would give her no fur- 
ther information. "A nobleman," he said, "had con- 
fided it to him under the seal of secrecy, and he had 
pledged his word of honour to him." What really 
withheld him from giving her any further explanation 
was, in all probability, not so much any delicacy about 
his honour, as his hatred of the Inquisition, which he 
would not willingly do anything to advance. Soon 



154 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

after him, Count Egmont delivered to the regent a 
copy of the covenant, and also gave her the names of 
the conspirators, with some few exceptions. Nearly 
about the same time the Prince of Orange wrote to 
her : " There was, as he had heard, an army enhsted, 
four hundred officers were already named, and tw^enty 
thousand men would presently appear in arms." Thus 
the rumour was intentionally exaggerated, and the 
danger was multiplied in every mouth. 

The regent, petrified with alarm at the first an- 
nouncement of these tidings, and guided solely by her 
fears, hastily called together all the members of the 
Council of State who happened to be then in Brussels, 
and at the same time sent a pressing summons to the 
Prince of Orange and Count Horn, inviting them to 
resume their seats in the senate. Before the latter 
could arrive she consulted with Egmont, Megen, and 
Barlaimont what course was to be adopted in the 
present dangerous posture of affairs. The question 
debated was whether it would be better to have re- 
course to arms or to yield to the emergency and grant 
the demands of the confederates; or whether they 
should be put off with promises, and an appearance of 
compliance, in order to gain time for procuring instruc- 
tions from Spain, and obtaining money and troops ? 
For the first plan the requisite supplies were wanting, 
and, what was equally requisite, confidence in the 
army, of which there seemed reason to doubt whether 
it had not been already gained by the conspirators. 
The second expedient would it was quite clear never 
be sanctioned by the king; besides it would serve 
rather to raise than depress the courage of the con- 
federates ; while, on the other hand, a compliance wdth 
their reasonable demands and a ready unconditional 
pardon of the past would in all probability stifle the 
rebellion in the cradle. The last opinion was sup- 
ported by Megen and Egmont, but opposed by Bar- 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 155 

laimont. " Eumour," said the latter, " had exaggerated 
the matter; it is impossible that so formidable an 
armament could have been prepared so secretly and so 
rapidly. It was but a band of a few outcasts and 
desperadoes, instigated by two or three enthusiasts, 
nothing more. All will be quiet after a few heads 
have been, struck off." The regent determined to 
await the opinion of the Council of State, which was 
shortly to assemble ; in the meanwhile, however, she 
was not inactive. The fortifications in the most im- 
portant places were inspected and the necessary repairs 
speedily executed ; her ambassadors at foreign courts 
received orders to redouble their vigilance; expresses 
were sent off to Spain. At the same time she caused 
the report to be revived of the near advent of the king, 
and in her external deportment put on a show of that 
imperturbable firmness which awaits attack without 
intending easily to yield to it. At the end of March 
(four whole months consequently from the framing of 
the covenant), the whole state council assembled in 
Brussels. There were present the Prince of Orange, 
the Duke of Aerschot, Counts Egmont, Bergen, Megen, 
Arenberg, Horn, Hogstraten, Barlaimont, and others ; 
the Barons Montigny and Hachicourt, all the knights 
of the Golden Fleece, with the President Yiglius, State 
Counsellor Bruxelles, and the other assessors of the 
privy council. Several letters were produced which 
gave a clearer insight into the nature and objects of 
the conspiracy. The extremity to which the regent 
was reduced gave the disaffected a power which on the 
present occasion they did not neglect to use. Venting 
their long suppressed indignation, they indulged in bitter 
complaints against the court and against the government. 
" But lately," said the Prince of Orange, " the king sent 
forty thousand gold florins to the Queen of Scotland 
to support her in her undertakings against England, 
and he allows his Netherlands to be burdened with 



IS6 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

debt. Not to mention tlie unseasonableness of this 
subsidy and its fruitless expenditure, why should he 
bring upon us the resentment of a queen, who is both 
so important to us as a friend and as an enemy so 
much to be dreaded ? " The prince did not even re- 
frain on the present occasion from glancing at the 
concealed hatred which the king was suspected of 
cherishing against the family of Nassau and against 
him in particular. " It is well known," he said, " that 
he has plotted with the hereditary enemies of my 
house to take away my life, and that he waits with 
impatience only for a suitable opportunity." His 
example opened the lips of Count Horn also, and of 
many others besides, who with passionate vehemence 
descanted on their own merits and the ingratitude of 
the king. With difficulty did the regent succeed in 
silencing the tumult and in recalling attention to the 
proper subject of the debate. The question was 
whether the confederates, of whom it was now known 
that they intended to appear at court with a petition, 
should be admitted or not ? The Duke of Aerschot, 
Counts Arenberg, Megen, and Barlaimont gave their 
negative to the proposition. " What need of five hun- 
dred persons," said the latter, "to deliver a small 
memorial ? This paradox of humility and defiance 
implies no good. Let them send to us one respectable 
man from among their number without pomp, without 
assumption, and so submit their application to us. 
Otherwise, shut the gates upon them, or if some insist 
on their admission let them be closely watched, and 
let the first act of insolence which any one of them 
shall be guilty of be punished with death." In this 
advice concurred Count Mansfeld, whose own son was 
among the conspirators; he had even threatened to 
disinherit his son if he did not quickly abandon the 
league. 

Counts Megen, also, and Arenberg hesitated to 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 157 

receive the petition; the Prince of Orange, however, 
Counts Egmont, Horn, Hogstraten, and others voted 
emphatically for it. " The confederates," they declared, 
" were known to them as men of integrity and honour ; 
a great part of them were connected with themselves 
by friendship and relationship, and they dared vouch 
for their behaviour. Every subject was allowed to 
petition; a right which was enjoyed by the meanest 
individual in the state could not without injustice be 
denied to so respectable a body of men." It was 
therefore resolved by a majority of votes to admit the 
confederates on the condition that they should appear 
unarmed and conduct themselves temperately. The 
squabbles of the members of council had occupied 
the greater part of the sitting, so that it was necessary 
to adjourn the discussion to the following day. In 
order that the principal matter in debate might not 
again be lost sight of in useless complaints the regent 
at once hastened to the point : " Brederode, we are 
informed," she said, " is coming to us, with an address 
in the name of the league, demanding the abolition of 
the Inquisition and a mitigation of the edicts. The 
advice of my senate is to guide me in my answer to 
him ; but before you give your opinions on this point 
permit me to premise a few words. I am told that 
there are many even amongst yourselves who load the 
religious edicts of the emperor, my father, with open* 
reproaches, and describe them to the people as inhuman 
and barbarous. Now I ask you, lords and gentlemen, 
knights of the Fleece, counsellors of his Majesty and 
of the state, whether you did not yourselves vote for 
these edicts, whether the states of the realm have not 
recognised them as lawful ? Why is that now blamed, 
which was formerly declared right ? Is it because 
they have now become even more necessary than they 
then were ? Since when is the Inquisition a new 
thing in the Netherlands ? Is it not full sixteen years 



158 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

ago since the emperor established it ? And wherein 
is it more cruel than the edicts ? If it be allowed 
that the latter were the work of wisdom, if the uni- 
versal consent of the states has sanctioned them — 
why this opposition to the former, which is neverthe- 
less far more humane than the edicts, if they are to be 
observed to the letter ? Speak now freely ; I am not 
desirous of fettering your decision ; but it is your busi- 
ness to see that it is not misled by passion and preju- 
dice." The Council of State was again, as it always 
had been, divided between two opinions ; but the few 
who spoke for the Inquisition and the literal execution 
of the edicts were outvoted by the opposite party with 
the Prince of Orange at its head. " Would to heaven," 
he began, "that my representations had been then 
thought worthy of attention, when as yet the grounds 
of apprehension were remote; things would in that 
case never have been carried so far as to make recourse 
to extreme measures indispensable, nor would men 
have been plunged deeper in error by the very means 
which were intended to beguile them from their delu- 
sion. We are all unanimous on the one main point. 
We all wish to see the Catholic religion safe ; if this 
end can be secured without the aid of the Inquisition, 
it is well, and we offer our wealth and our blood to its 
service ; but on this very point it is that our opinions 
are divided. 

•'There are two kinds of inquisition: the see of 
Eome lays claim to one, the other has, from time 
immemorial, been exercised by the bishops. The force 
of prejudice and of custom has made the latter light 
and supportable to us. It will find little opposition 
in the Netherlands, and the augmented numbers of 
the bishops will make it effective. To what purpose 
then insist on the former, the mere name of which is 
revolting to all the feelings of our minds ? When so 
many nations exist without it why should it be imposed 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 159 

on us ? Before Luther appeared it was never heard 
of; but the troubles with Luther happened at a time 
when there was an inadequate number of spiritual 
overseers, and when the few bishops were, moreover, 
indolent, and the licentiousness of the clergy excluded 
them from the office of judges. Now all is changed ; 
we now count as many bishops as there are provinces. 
Why should not the policy of the government adjust 
itself to the altered circumstances of the times ? We 
want leniency, not severity. The repugnance of the 
people is manifest — this we must seek to appease if 
we would not have it burst out into rebellion. With 
the death of Pius IV. the full powers of the inquis- 
itors have expired ; the new Pope has as yet sent no 
ratijfication of their authority, without which no one 
formerly ventured to exercise his office. Now, there- 
fore, is the time when it can be suspended without 
infringing the rights of any party. 

" What I have stated with regard to the Inquisition 
holds equally good in respect to the edicts also. The 
exigency of the times called them forth, but are not 
those times passed ? So long an experience of them 
ought at last to have taught us that against heresy no 
means are less successful than the fagot and sword. 
What incredible progress has not the new religion made 
during only the last few years in the provinces ; and if 
we investigate the cause of this increase we shall find 
it principally in the glorious constancy of those who 
have fallen sacrifices to the truth of their opinions. 
Carried away by sympathy and admiration, men begin 
to weigh in silence whether what is maintained with 
such invincible courage may not really be the truth. 
In France and in England the same severities may 
have been inflicted on the Protestants, but have they 
been attended with any better success there than here ? 
The very earliest Christians boasted that the blood of 
the martyrs was the seed of the Church. The Emperor 



i6o REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

Julian, the most terrible enemy that Christianity ever 
experienced, was fully persuaded of this. Convinced 
that persecution did but kindle enthusiasm, he betook 
himself to ridicule and derision, and found these 
weapons far more effective than force. In the Greek 
empire different teachers of heresy have arisen at 
different times. Arius under Constantine, Aetius 
under Constantius, Nestorius under Theodosius. But 
even against these arch-heretics and their disciples 
such cruel measures were never resorted to as are 
thought necessary against our unfortunate country — 
and yet where are all those sects now which once a 
whole world, I had almost said, could not contain? 
This is the natural course of heresy. If it is treated 
with contempt it crumbles into insignificance. It is as 
iron, which, if it lies idle, corrodes, and only becomes 
sharp by use. Let no notice be paid to it, and it loses 
its most powerful attraction, the magic of what is new 
and what is forbidden. Why will we not content our- 
selves with the measures which have been approved of 
by the wisdom of such great rulers ? Example is ever 
the safest guide. 

" But what need to go to pagan antiquity for guid- 
ance and example when we have near at hand the 
glorious precedent of Charles V., the greatest of kings, 
who, taught at last by experience, abandoned the 
bloody path of persecution, and for many years before 
his abdication adopted milder measures. And Phihp 
himself, our most gracious sovereign, seemed at first 
strongly inclined to leniency until the counsels of 
Granvella and of others like him changed these views ; 
but with what right or wisdom they may settle be- 
tween themselves. To me, however, it has always 
appeared indispensable that legislation to be wise and 
successful must adjust itself to the manners and max- 
ims of the times. In conclusion, I would beg to re- 
mind you of the close understanding which subsists 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS l6l 

between the Huguenots and the Flemish Protestants. 
Let us beware of exasperating them any further. Let 
us not act the part of French Catholics toward them, 
lest they should play the Huguenots against us, and, 
like the latter, plunge their country into the horrors of 
a civil war." ^ 

It was, perhaps, not so much the irresistible truth of 
his arguments, which, moreover, were supported by a 
decisive majority in the senate, as rather the ruinous 
state of the military resources, and the exhaustion of 
the treasury, that prevented the adoption of the oppo- 
site opinion which recommended an appeal to the force 
of arms that the Prince of Orange had chiefly to thank 
for the attention which now at last was paid to his 
representations. In order to avert at first the violence 
of the storm, and to gain time, which was so necessary 
to place the government in a better state of preparation, 
it was agreed that a portion of the demands should be 
accorded to the confederates. It was also resolved to 
mitigate the penal statutes of the emperor, as he him- 
self would certainly mitigate them, were he again to 
appear among them at that day — and as, indeed, he 
had once shown under circumstances very similar to the 
present that he did not think it derogatory to his high 
dignity to do. The Inquisition was not to be intro- 
duced in any place where it did not already exist, and 
where it had been it should adopt a milder system, or 
even be entirely suspended, especially since the inquisi- 
tors had not yet been confirmed in their office by the 
Pope. The latter reason was put prominently forward, 
in order to deprive the Protestants of the gratification 
of ascribing the concessions to any fear of their own 



iNo one need wonder, says Burgundias (a vehement stickler 
for the Roman Catholic religion and the Spanish party), that the 
speech of this prince evinced so much acquaintance with philos- 
ophy ; he had acquired it in his intercoui-se with Balduin. (180. 
Barry, 174-178. Hopper, 72. Strada, 123, 124.) 



1 62 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

power, or to the justice of their demands. The privy 
council was commissioned to draw out this decree of 
the senate without delay. Thus prepared, the confed- 
erates were awaited. 

THE GUEUX. 

The members of the senate had not yet dispersed, 
when all Brussels resounded with the report that the 
confederates were approaching the town. They con- 
sisted of no more than two hundred horse, but rumour 
greatly exaggerated their numbers. Filled with con- 
sternation, the regent consulted with her ministers 
whether it was best to close the gates on the approach- 
ing party or to seek safety in flight. Both suggestions 
were rejected as dishonourable ; and the peaceable entry 
of the nobles soon allayed all fears of violence. The 
first morning after their arrival they assembled at 
Kuilemberg house, where Brederode administered to 
them a second oath, binding them before all other 
duties to stand by one another, and even with arms 
if necessary. At this meeting a letter from Spain was 
produced, in which it was stated that a certain Prot- 
estant, whom they all knew and valued, had been 
burned alive in that country by a slow fire. After 
these and similar preliminaries, he called on them one 
after another by name to take the new oath and renew 
the old one in their own names and in those of the 
absent. The next day, the 5th of April, 1566, was 
fixed for the presentation of the petition. Their num- 
bers now amounted to between three and four hundred. 
Amongst them were many retainers of the high nobil- 
ity, as also several servants of the king himself and of 
the duchess. 

With the Counts of Nassau and Brederode at their 
head, and formed in ranks of four by four, they ad- 
vanced in procession to the palace; all Brussels attended 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 163 

the unwonted spectacle in silent astonishment. Here 
were to be seen a body of men advancing with too 
much boldness and confidence to look hke supplicants, 
and led by two men who were not wont to be petition- 
ers ; and, on the other hand, with so much order and 
stillness as do not usually accompany rebellion. The 
regent received the procession surrounded by all her 
counsellors and the knights of the Fleece. " These 
noble i^etherlanders," thus Brederode respectfully ad- 
dressed her, " who here present themselves before your 
Highness, wish in their own name, and of many others 
besides who are shortly to arrive, to present to you a 
petition of whose importance as well as of their own 
humility this solemn procession must convince you. I, 
as speaker of this body, entreat you to receive our peti- 
tion, which contains nothing but what is in unison 
with the laws of our country and the honour of the 
king." 

" If this petition," replied Margaret, " really contains 
nothing which is at variance either with the good of 
the country, or with the authority of the king, there is 
no doubt that it will be favourably considered." " They 
had learnt," continued the spokesman, " with indigna- 
tion and regret that suspicious objects had been imputed 
to theh association, and that interested parties had en- 
deavoured to prejudice her Highness against him ; they 
therefore craved that she would name the authors of 
so grave an accusation, and compel them to bring their 
charges pubhcly, and in due form, in order that he who 
should be found guilty might suffer the punishment of 
his demerits." " Undoubtedly," replied the regent, " she 
had received unfavourable rumours of their designs and 
alliance. She could not be blamed if in consequence 
she had thought it requisite to call the attention of the 
governors of the provinces to the matter ; but, as to 
giving up the names of her informants to betray state 
secrets," she added, with an appearance of displeasure, 



i64 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

"that could not in justice be required of her." She 
then appointed the next day for answering their peti- 
tion; and in the meantime she proceeded to consult 
the members of her council upon it. 

"Never" (so ran the petition which, according to 
some, was drawn up by the celebrated Balduin), 
" never had they failed in their loyalty to their king, 
and nothing new could be farther from their hearts ; 
but they would rather run the risk of incurring the 
displeasure of their sovereign than allow him to remain 
longer in ignorance of the evils with which their native 
country was menaced, by the forcible introduction of 
the Inquisition and the continued enforcement of the 
edicts. They had long remained consoling themselves 
with the expectation that a general assembly of the 
states would be summoned to remedy these griev- 
ances ; but now that even this hope was extinguished, 
they held it to be their duty to give timely warning to 
the regent. They, therefore, entreated her Highness 
to send to Madrid an envoy, well disposed, and fully 
acquainted with the state and temper of the times, 
who should endeavour to persuade the king to comply 
with the demands of the whole nation, and abohsh the 
Inquisition, to revoke the edicts, and in their stead 
cause new and more humane ones to be drawn up at a 
general assembly of the states. But, in the meanwhile, 
until they could learn the king's decision, they prayed 
that the edicts and the operations of the Inquisition be 
suspended." " If," they concluded, " no attention should 
be paid to their humble request, they took God, the 
king, the regent, and all her counsellors to witness that 
they had done their part, and were not responsible for 
any unfortunate result that might happen." 

The following day the confederates, marching in the 
same order of procession, but in still greater numbers 
(Counts Bergen and Kuilemberg having, in the interim, 
joined them with their adherents), appeared before the 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 165 

regent in order to receive her answer. It was written 
on the margin of the petition, and was to the effect, 
"that entirely to suspend the Inquisition and the 
edicts, even temporarily, was beyond her powers ; but 
in compliance with the wishes of the confederates she 
was ready to despatch one of the nobles to the king in 
Spain, and also to support their petition with all her 
influence. In the meantime, she would recommend 
the inquisitors to administer their office with modera- 
tion; but in return she should expect on the part of 
the league that they should abstain from all acts of vio- 
lence, and undertake nothing to the prejudice of the 
Catholic faith." Little as these vague and general 
promises satisfied the confederates, they were, never- 
theless, as much as they could have reasonably ex- 
pected to gain at first. The granting or refusing of the 
petition had nothing to do with the primary object of 
the league. Enough for them at present that it was 
once recognised, enough that it was now, as it were, an 
established body, which by its power and threats might, 
if necessary, overawe the government. The confeder- 
ates, therefore, acted quite consistently with their de- 
signs, in contenting themselves with this answer, and 
referring the rest to the good pleasure of the king. As, 
indeed, the whole pantomime of petitioning had only 
been invented to cover the more daring plan of the 
league, until it should have strength enough to show 
itseK in its true hght, they felt that much more de- 
pended on their being able to continue this mask, and 
on the favourable reception of their petition, than on 
its speedily being granted. In a new memorial, which 
they delivered three days after, they pressed for an 
express testimonial from the regent that they had done 
no more than their duty, and been guided simply by 
their zeal for the service of the king. When the duch- 
ess evaded a declaration, they even sent a person to 
repeat this request in a private interview. " Time alone 



i66 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

and their future behaviour," she repHed to this person, 
" would enable her to judge of their designs." 

The league had its origin in banquets, and a banquet 
gave it form and perfection. On the very day that the 
second petition was presented Brederode entertained 
the confederates in Kuilemberg house. About three 
hundred guests assembled ; intoxication gave them 
courage, and their audacity rose with their numbers. 
During the conversation one of their number happened 
to remark that he had overheard the Count of Barlai- 
mont whisper in French to the regent, who was seen 
to turn pale on the delivery of the petitions, that " she 
need not be afraid of a band of beggars (gueux)." (In 
fact, the majority of them had by their bad manage- 
ment of their incomes only too well deserved this 
appellation.) Now, as the very name for their fra- 
ternity was the very thing which had most perplexed 
them, an expression was eagerly caught up, which, 
while it cloaked the presumption of their enterprise in 
humility, was at the same time appropriate to them as 
petitioners. Immediately they drank to one another 
under this name, and the cry, " Long live the Gueux ! " 
was accompanied with a general shout of applause. 
After the cloth had been removed Brederode appeared 
with a wallet over his shoulder similar to that which 
the vagrant pilgrims and mendicant monks of the time 
used to carry, and after returning thanks to all for 
their accession to the league, and boldly assuring them 
that he was ready to venture life and Hmb for every 
individual present, he drank to the health of the whole 
company out of a wooden beaker. The cup went 
round and every one uttered the same vow as he set it 
to his lips. Then one after the other they received the 
beggar's purse, and each hung it on a nail which he 
had appropriated to himself. The shouts and uproar 
attending this buffoonery attracted the Prince of Orange 
and Counts Egmont and Horn, who by chance were 




..ict J -^ dO ^d gnitnifiq sdi moil d-ruvBigoJoH^I 



rode e 

lion gave 

ii their numbera 

i umber happened 



!• 1 1 1 



that « she 
(lu 



. for e 

n of the w! 



The Banquet of the Beggars. 

Photogravure from the painting by Ch. Soubre. 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 167 

passing the spot at tlie very moment, and on entering 
the house were boisterously pressed by Brederode, as 
host, to remain and drink a glass with them.^ 

The entrance of three such influential personages 
renewed the mirth of the guests, and their festivities 
soon passed the bounds of moderation. Many were 
intoxicated; guests and attendants mingled together 
without distinction; the serious and the ludicrous, 
drunken fancies and affairs of state were blended one 
with another in a burlesque medley ; and the discus- 
sions on the general distress of the country ended in 
the wild uproar of a bacchanahan reveL But it did 
not stop here; what they had resolved on in the 
moment of intoxication they attempted when sober to 
carry into execution. It was necessary to manifest 
to the people in some striking shape the existence of 
their protectors, and likewise to fan the zeal of the 
faction by a visible emblem; for this end nothing 
could be better than to adopt pubhcly this name of 
Gueux, and to borrow from it the tokens of the associa- 
tion. In a few days the town of Brussels swarmed 
with ash-gray garments such as were usually worn by 
mendicant friars and penitents. Every confederate put 
his whole family and domestics in this dress. Some 
carried wooden bowls thinly overlaid with plates of 
silver, cups of the same kind, and wooden knives ; in 
short, the whole paraphernaha of the beggar tribe, 
which they either fixed around their hats or suspended 
from their girdles. Around the neck they wore a 
golden or silver coin, afterward called the Geusen 

i"But," Egmont asserted in his written defence, "we drank 
only one single small glass, and thereupon they cried, ' Long live 
the king and the Gueux ! ' This was the first time that I heard 
that appellation, and it certainly did not please me. But the 
times were so bad that one was often compelled to share in much 
that was against one's inclination, and I knew not but I was doing 
an innocent thing." (Proems criminels des Comtes d'Egmont, 
etc., 7. 1. Egmont' s defence, Hopper, 94, Strada, 127-130. 
Burgund., 185, 187.) 



i68 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

penny, of which one side bore the effigy of the king, 
with the inscription, " True to the king ; " on the other 
side w^ere seen two hands folded together holding a 
wallet, with the words, " As far as the beggar's scrip." 
Hence the origin of the name " Gueux," which was 
subsequently borne in the Netherlands by all who 
seceded from popery and took up arms against the 
king. 

Before the confederates separated and dispersed 
among the provinces they presented themselves once 
more before the duchess, in order to remind her of the 
necessity of leniency toward the heretics until the 
arrival of the king's answer from Spain, if she did not 
wish to drive the people to extremities. "If, how- 
ever," they added, " a contrary behaviour should give 
rise to any evils they at least must be regarded as 
having done their duty." 

To this the regent replied, " she hoped to be able to 
adopt such measures as would render it impossible for 
disorders to ensue ; but if, nevertheless, they did occur, 
she could ascribe them to no one but the confederates. 
She therefore earnestly admonished them on their part 
to fulfil their engagements, but especially to receive no 
new members into the league, to hold no more private 
assemblies, and generally not to attempt any novel and 
unconstitutional measures." And in order to tranquil- 
lise their minds she commanded her private secretary, 
Berti, to show them the letters to the inquisitors and 
secular judges, wherein they were enjoined to observe 
moderation toward all those who had not aggravated 
their heretical offences by any civil crime. Before their 
departure from Brussels they named four presidents 
from among their number who were to take care of the 
affairs of the league, and also particular administrators 
for each province. A few were left behind in Brus- 
sels to keep a watchful eye on all the movements of 
the court. Brederode, Kuilemberg, and Bergen at last 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 169 

quitted the town, attended by five hundred and fifty 
horsemen, saluted it once more beyond the walls with 
a discharge of musketry, and then the three leaders 
parted, Brederode taking the road to Antwerp, and the 
two others to Guelders. The regent had sent off an 
express to Antwerp to warn the magistrate of that 
town against him. On his arrival more than a thou- 
sand persons thronged to the hotel where he had taken 
up his abode. Showing himseK at a window, with a 
full wineglass in his hand, he thus addressed them: 
" Citizens of Antwerp ! I am here at the hazard of my 
life and my property to relieve you from the oppressive 
burden of the Inquisition. If you are ready to share 
this enterprise with me, and to acknowledge me as 
your leader, accept the health which I here drink 
to you, and hold up your hands in testimony of your 
approbation." Hereupon he drank to their health, and 
all hands were raised amidst clamorous shouts of 
exultation. After this heroic deed he quitted Ant- 
werp. 

Immediately after the delivery of the " petition of 
the nobles," the regent had caused a new form of the 
edicts to be drawn up in the privy council, which 
should keep the mean between the commands of the 
king and the demands of the confederates. But the 
next question that arose was to determine whether it 
would be advisable immediately to promulgate this 
mitigated form, or moderation, as it was commonly 
called, or to submit it first to the king for his ratifica- 
tion. The privy council, who maintained that it would 
be presumptuous to take a step so important and so 
contrary to the declared sentiments of the monarch 
without having first obtained his sanction, opposed the 
vote of the Prince of Orange who supported the former 
proposition. Besides, they urged, there was cause to fear 
that it would not even content the nation. A " mod- 
eration " devised with the assent of the states was what 



170 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

they particularly insisted on. In order, therefore, to 
gain the consent of the states, or rather to obtain it 
from them by stealth, the regent artfully propounded 
the question to the provinces singly, and first of all 
to those which possessed the least freedom, such as 
Artois, Namur, and Luxemburg. Thus she not only 
prevented one province encouraging another in oppo- 
sition, but also gained this advantage by it, that the 
freer provinces, such as Flanders and Brabant, which 
were prudently reserved to the last, allowed themselves 
to be carried away by the example of the others. By 
a very illegal procedure the representatives of the 
towns were taken by surprise and their consent exacted 
before they could confer with their constituents, while 
complete silence was imposed upon them with regard 
to the whole transaction. By these means the regent 
obtained the unconditional consent of some of the 
provinces to the " moderation," and, with a few slight 
changes, that of other provinces. Luxemburg and 
Namur subscribed it without scruple. The states of 
Artois simply added the condition that false informers 
should be subjected to a retributive penalty ; those of 
Hainault demanded that instead of confiscation of the 
estates, which directly militated against their priv- 
ileges, another discretionary punishment should be 
introduced. Flanders called for the entire abolition of 
the Inquisition, and desired that the accused might be 
secured in right of appeal to their own province. The 
states of Brabant were outwitted by the intrigues of 
the court. Zealand, Holland, Utrecht, Guelder s, and 
Friesland, as being provinces which enjoyed the most 
important privileges, and which, moreover, watched 
over them with the greatest jealousy, were never asked 
for their opinion. The provincial courts of judicature 
had also been required to make a report on the pro- 
jected amendment of the law, but we may well suppose 
that it was unfavourable, as it never reached Spain. 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 171 

From the principal cause of this " moderation," which, 
however, really deserved its name, we may form a 
judgment of the general character of the edicts them- 
selves. " Sectarian writers," it ran, " the heads and 
teachers of sects, as also those who conceal heretical 
meetings, or cause any other public scandal, shall be 
punished with the gallows, and their estates, where the 
law of the province permit it, confiscated ; but if they 
abjure their errors, their punishment shall be com- 
muted into decapitation with the sword, and their 
effects shall be preserved to their families." A cruel 
snare for parental affection ! Less grievous heretics, it 
was further enacted, shall, if penitent, be pardoned; 
and if impenitent shall be compelled to leave the 
country, without, however, forfeiting their estates, un- 
less by continuing to lead others astray they deprive 
themselves of the benefit of this provision. The Ana- 
baptists, however, were expressly excluded from bene- 
fiting by this clause; these, if they did not clear 
themselves by the most thorough repentance, were to 
forfeit their possessions ; and if, on the other hand, 
they relapsed after penitence, that is, were backshding 
heretics, they were to be put to death without mercy. 
The greater regard for life and property which is 
observable in this ordinance as compared with the 
edicts, and which we might be tempted to ascribe to a 
change of intention in the Spanish ministry, was noth- 
ing more than a compulsory step extorted by the 
determined opposition of the nobles. So little, too, 
were the people in the Netherlands satisfied by this 
" moderation," which fundamentally did not remove a 
single abuse, that instead of ** moderation " (mitiga- 
tion), they indignantly called it " moorderation," that 
is, murdering. 

After the consent of the states had in this manner 
been extorted from them, the " moderation " was sub- 
mitted to the Council of the State, and, after receiving 



172 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

their signatures, forwarded to the King of Spain in order 
to receive from his ratification the force of law. 

The embassy to Madrid, which had been agreed upon 
with the confederates, was at the outset entrusted to 
the Marquis of Bergen,^ who, however, from a distrust 
of the present disposition of the king, which was only 
too well grounded, and from reluctance to engage alone 
in so delicate a business, begged for a coadjutor. He 
obtained one in the Baron of Montigny, who had pre- 
viously been employed in a similar duty, and had dis- 
charged it with high credit. As, however, circumstances 
had since altered so much that he had just anxiety as 
to his present reception in Madrid, for his greater safety 
he stipulated with the duchess that she should write to 
the monarch previously ; and that he, with his com- 
panion, should, in the meanwhile, travel slowly enough 
to give time for the king's answer reaching him en 
route. His good genius wished, as it appeared, to save 
him from the terrible fate which awaited him in Madrid, 
for his departure was delayed by an unexpected obstacle, 
the Marquis of Bergen being disabled from setting out 
immediately through a wound which he received from 
the blow of a tennis-ball. At last, however, yielding 
to the pressing importunities of the regent, who was 
anxious to expedite the business, he set out alone, not, 
as he hoped, to carry the cause of his nation, but to die 
for it. 

In the meantime the posture of affairs had changed 
so greatly in the Netherlands, the step which the nobles 
had recently taken had so nearly brought on a com- 
plete rupture with the government, that it seemed im- 
possible for the Prince of Orange and his friends to 
maintain any longer the intermediate and delicate posi- 
tion which they had hitherto held between the country 

^ This Marquis of Bergen is to be distinguished from Count 
William of Bergen, who was among the first who subscribed the 
covenant. — Vigl. ad Hopper, Letter VII. 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 173 

and the court, or to reconcile the contradictory duties 
to which it gave rise. Great must have been the re- 
straint which, with their mode of thinking, they had 
to put on themselves not to take part in this contest ; 
much, too, must their natural love of liberty, their 
patriotism, and their principles of toleration have suf- 
fered from the constraint which their official station 
imposed upon them. On the other hand, Phihp's dis- 
trust, the little regard which now for a long time had 
been paid to their advice, and the marked shghts which 
the duchess publicly put upon them, had greatly con- 
tributed to cool their zeal for the service, and to render 
irksome the longer continuance of a part which they 
played with so much repugnance and with so little 
thanks. This feeling was strengthened by several inti- 
mations they received from Spain which placed beyond 
doubt the great displeasure of the king at the petition 
of the nobles, and his little satisfaction with their own 
behaviour on that occasion, while they were also led to 
expect that he was about to enter upon measures, to 
which, as favourable to the liberties of their country, 
and for the most part friends or blood relations of the 
confederates, they could never lend their countenance 
or support. On the name which should be applied in 
Spain to the confederacy of the nobles it principally 
depended what course they should follow for the future. 
If the petition should be called rebellion no alternative 
would be left them but either to come prematurely to a 
dangerous explanation with the court, or to aid it in 
treating as enemies those with whom they had both a 
fellow feehng and a common interest. This perilous 
alternative could only be avoided by withdrawing en- 
tirely from pubhc affairs; this plan they had once 
before practically adopted, and under present circum- 
stances it was something more than a simple expedient. 
The whole nation had their eyes upon them. An un- 
limited confidence in their integrity, and the universal 



174 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

veneration for their persons, which closely bordered on 
idolatry, would ennoble the cause which they might 
make their own and ruin that which they should aban- 
don. Their share in the administration of the state, 
though it were nothing more than nominal, kept the 
opposite party in check ; while they attended the senate 
violent measures were avoided because their continued 
presence still favoured some expectations of succeeding 
by gentle means. The withholding of their approba- 
tion, even if it did not proceed from their hearts, 
dispirited the faction, which, on the contrary, would 
exert its full strength so soon as it could reckon even 
distantly on obtaining so weighty a sanction. The very 
measures of the government which, if they came through 
their hands, were certain of a favourable reception and 
issue, would without them prove suspected and futile ; 
even the royal concessions, if they were not obtained 
by the mediation of these friends of the people, would 
fail of the chief part of their efficacy. Besides, their 
retirement from public affairs would deprive the regent 
of the benefit of their advice at a time when counsel 
was most indispensable to her; it would, moreover, 
leave the preponderance with a party which, blindly 
dependent on the court, and ignorant of the peculiarities 
of republican character, would neglect nothing to aggra- 
vate the evil, and to drive to extremity the already 
exasperated mind of the public. 

All these motives (and it is open to every one, 
according to his good or bad opinion of the prince, 
to say which was the most influential) tended alike to 
move him to desert the regent, and to divest himself 
of all share in public affairs. An opportunity for 
putting this resolve into execution soon presented 
itself. The prince had voted for the immediate pro- 
mulgation of the newly revised edicts ; but the regent, 
following the suggestion of her privy council, had 
determined to transmit them first to the king. "I 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 175 

now see clearly," he broke out with well-acted vehe- 
mence, *' that all the advice which I give is distrusted. 
The king requires no servants whose loyalty he is 
determined to doubt ; and far be it from me to thrust 
my services upon a sovereign who is unwilling to re- 
ceive them. Better, therefore, for him and me that I 
withdraw from public affairs." Count Horn expressed 
himself nearly to the same effect. Egmont requested 
permission to visit the baths of Aix-la-Chapelle, the 
use of which had been prescribed to him by his physi- 
cian, although (as it is stated in his accusation) he 
appeared health itself. The regent, terrified at the 
consequences which must inevitably follow this step, 
spoke sharply to the prince. " If neither my represen- 
tations nor the general welfare can prevail upon you, 
so far as to induce you to relinquish this intention, 
let me advise you to be more careful, at least, of your 
own reputation. Louis of Nassau is your brother; 
he and Count Brederode, the heads of the confed- 
eracy, have publicly been your guests. The petition 
is in substance identical with your own representations 
in the Council of State. If you now suddenly desert 
the cause of your king will it not be universally said 
that you favour the conspiracy ? " We do not find it 
anywhere stated whether the prince really withdrew 
at this time from the Council of State ; at all events, 
if he did, he must soon have altered his mind, for 
shortly after he appears again in public transactions. 
Egmont allowed himself to be overcome by the re- 
monstrances of the regent ; Horn alone actually with- 
drew himself to one of his estates,^ with the resolution 
of never more serving either emperor or king. Mean- 
while the Gueux had dispersed themselves through 
the provinces, and spread' everywhere the most favour- 
able reports of their success. According to their 

1 Where he remained three months inactive. 



176 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

assertions, religious freedom was finally assured; and 
in order to confirm their statements they helped them- 
selves, where the truth failed, with falsehood. For 
example, they produced a forged letter of the knights 
of the Fleece, in which the latter were made solemnly 
to declare that for the future no one need fear im- 
prisonment, or banishment, or death, on account of 
rehgion, unless he also committed a political crime; 
and even in that case the confederates alone were to 
be his judges ; and this regulation was to be in force 
until the king, with the consent and advice of the 
states of the realm, should otherwise dispose. Ear- 
nestly as the knights applied themselves upon the 
first information of the fraud to rescue the nation from 
their delusion, still it had already in this short interval 
done good service to the faction. If there are truths 
whose effect is limited to a single instant, then inven- 
tions which last so long can easily assume their place. 
Besides, the report, however false, was calculated both 
to awaken distrust between the regent and the knights, 
and to support the courage of the Protestants by fresh 
hopes, while it also furnished those who were meditat- 
ing innovation an appearance of right, which, however 
unsubstantial they themselves knew it to be, served as 
a colourable pretext for their proceedings. Quickly as 
this delusion was dispelled, still, in the short space 
of time that it obtained belief, it had occasioned so 
many extravagances, had introduced so much irregu- 
larity and license, that a return to the former state 
of things became impossible, and continuance in the 
course already commenced was rendered necessary as 
well by habit as by despair. On the very first news 
of this happy result, the fugitive Protestants had re- 
turned to their homes, which they had so unwillingly 
abandoned ; those who had been in concealment came 
forth from their hiding-places ; those who had hitherto 
paid homage to the new religion in their hearts alone, 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 177 

emboldened by these pretended acts of toleration, now 
gave in their adhesion to it publicly and decidedly. 
The name of the " Gueux " was extolled in all the 
provinces; they were called the pillars of religion 
and liberty ; their party increased daily, and many of 
the merchants began to wear their insignia. The 
latter made an alteration in the " Gueux " penny, by 
introducing two travellers' staffs, laid crosswise, to 
intimate that they stood prepared and ready at any 
instant to forsake house and hearth for the sake of 
religion. The Gueux league, in short, had now given 
to things an entirely different form. The murmurs of 
the people, hitherto impotent and despised, as being 
the cries of individuals, had, now that they were con- 
centrated, become formidable ; and had gained power, 
direction, and firmness through union. Every one 
who was rebelliously disposed now looked on himself 
as the member of a venerable and powerful body, and 
believed that by carrying his own complaints to the 
general stock of discontent he secured the free expres- 
sion of them. To be called an important acquisition 
to the league flattered the vain ; to be lost, unnoticed 
and irresponsible in the crowd was an inducement to 
the timid. The face which the confederacy showed 
to the nation was very unlike that which it had 
turned to the court. But had its objects been the 
purest, had it really been as well disposed toward the 
throne as it wished to appear, still the multitude would 
have regarded only what was illegal in its proceedings, 
and upon them its better intentions would have been 
entirely lost. 

PUBLIC PKEACHING. 

No moment could be more favourable to the Hugue- 
nots and the German Protestants than the present to 
seek a market for their dangerous commodity in the 



178 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

Netherlands. Accordingly, every considerable town 
now swarmed with suspicious arrivals, masked spies, 
and the apostles of every description of heresy. Of 
the religious parties, which had sprung up by secession 
from the ruling church, three chiefly had made con- 
siderable progress in the provinces. Friesland and the 
adjoining districts were overrun by the Anabaptists, 
who, however, as the most indigent, without organisa- 
tion and government, destitute of military resources, 
and moreover at strife amongst themselves, awakened 
the least apprehension. Of far more importance were 
the Calvinists, who prevailed in the southern provinces, 
and above all in Flanders, who were powerfully sup- 
ported by their neighbours the Huguenots, the republic 
of Geneva, the Swiss Cantons, and part of Germany, 
and whose opinions, with the exception of a slight 
difference, were also held by the throne in England. 
They were also the most numerous party, especially 
among the merchants and common citizens. The 
Huguenots, expelled from France, had been the chief 
disseminators of the tenets of this party. The Lu- 
therans were inferior both in numbers and wealth, but 
derived weight from having many adherents among 
the nobility. They occupied, for the most part, the 
eastern portion of the Netherlands, which borders on 
Germany, and were also to be found in some of the 
northern territories. Some of the most powerful 
princes of Germany were their allies ; and the rehgious 
freedom of that empire, of which, by the Burgundian 
treaty, the Netherlands formed an integral part, was 
claimed by them with some appearance of right. 
These three religious denominations met together in 
Antwerp, where the crowded population concealed 
them, and the mingling of all nations favoured liberty. 
They had nothing in common, except an equally inex- 
tinguishable hatred of popery, of the Inquisition in 
particular, and of the Spanish government, whose 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 179 

instrument it was ; while, on the other hand, they 
watched each other with a jealousy which kept their 
zeal in exercise, and perverted the glowing ardour of 
fanaticism from waxing dull. 

The regent, in expectation that the projected " mod- 
eration " would be sanctioned by the king, had, in the 
meantime, to gratify the Gueux, recommended the 
governors and municipal officers of the provinces to be 
as moderate as possible in their proceedings against 
heretics ; instructions which were eagerly followed, 
and interpreted in the widest sense by the majority, 
who had hitherto administered the painful duty of 
punishment with extreme repugnance. Most of the 
chief magistrates were in their hearts averse to the 
Inquisition and the Spanish tyranny, and many were 
even secretly attached to one or other of the religious 
parties ; even the others were unwilling to inflict pun- 
ishment on their countrymen to gratify their sworn 
enemies, the Spaniards. All, therefore, purposely mis- 
understood the regent, and allowed the Inquisition and 
the edicts to fall almost entirely into disuse. This 
forbearance of the government, combined with the 
brilliant representations of the Gueux, lured from their 
obscurity the Protestants, who, however, had now 
grown too powerful to be any longer concealed. Hith- 
erto they had contented themselves with secret assem- 
blies by night ; now they thought themselves numerous 
and formidable enough to venture to these meetings 
openly and publicly. This License commenced some- 
where between Oudenarde and Ghent, and soon spread 
through the rest of Flanders. A certain Hermann 
Strieker, born at Overyssel, formerly a monk, a daring 
enthusiast of able mind, imposing figure, and ready 
tongue, was the first who collected the people for a 
sermon in the open air. The novelty of the thing 
gathered together a crowd of about seven thousand 
persons. A magistrate of the neighbourhood, more 



i8o REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

courageous than wise, rushed amongst the crowd with 
his drawn sword, and attempted to seize the preacher, 
but was so roughly handled by the multitude, who for 
want of other weapons took up stones and felled him 
to the ground, that he was glad to beg for his life.^ 

This success of the first attempt inspired courage for 
a second. In the vicinity of Aalst they assembled 
again in still greater numbers ; but on this occasion 
they provided themselves with rapiers, firearms, and 
halberds, placed sentries at all the approaches, which 
they also barricaded with carts and carriages. All 
passers-by were obhged, whether willing or otherwise, 
to take part in the religious service, and to enforce this 
object lookout parties were posted at certain distances 
around the place of meeting. At the entrance book- 
sellers stationed themselves, offering for sale Protes- 
tant catechisms, religious tracts, and pasquinades on 
the bishops. The preacher, Hermann Strieker, held 
forth from a pulpit w^hich was hastily constructed for 
the occasion out of carts and trunks of trees. A can- 
vas awning drawn over it protected him from the sun 
and the rain ; the preacher's position was in the quarter 
of the wind that the people might not lose any part of 
his sermon, which consisted principally of revilings 
against popery. Here the sacraments were admin- 
istered after the Calvinistic fashion, and water was pro- 
cured from the nearest river to baptise infants without 
further ceremony, after the practice, it was pretended, 
of the earliest times of Christianity. Couples were 
also united in wedlock, and the marriage ties dissolved 
between others. To be present at this meeting half 
the population of Ghent had left its gates; their ex- 

1 The unheard-of f oolhardiness of a single man rushing into the 
midst of a fanatical crowd of seven thousand people to seize before 
their eyes one whom they adored, proves, more than all that can 
be said on the subject, the insolent contempt with which the 
Roman Catholics of the time looked down upon the so-called 
heretics as an inferior race of beings. 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS i8i 

ample was soon followed in other parts, and ere long 
spread over the whole of East Flanders. In like 
manner Peter Dathen, another renegade monk, from 
Poperingen, stirred up West Flanders; as many as 
fifteen thousand persons at a time attended his preach- 
ing from the villages and hamlets ; their number made 
them hold, and they broke into the prisons, where 
some Anabaptists were reserved for martyrdom. In 
Tournay the Protestants were excited to a similar' 
pitch of daring by Ambrosius Ville, a French Calvin- 
ist. They demanded the release of the prisoners of 
their sect, and repeatedly threatened if their demands 
were not complied with to dehver up the town to the 
French. It was entirely destitute of a garrison, for 
the commandant, from fear of treason, had withdrawn 
it into the castle, and the soldiers, moreover, refused 
to act against their fellow citizens. The sectarians 
carried their audacity to such great lengths as to 
require one of the churches within the town to be 
assigned to them; and when this was refused they 
entered into a league with Valenciennes and Antwerp 
to obtain a legal recognition of their worship, after the 
example of the other towns, by open force. These 
three towns maintained a close connection with each 
other, and the Protestant party was equally powerful 
in all. While, however, no one would venture singly 
to commence the disturbance, they agreed simultane- 
ously to make a beginning with public preaching. 
Brederode's appearance in Antwerp at last gave them 
courage. Six thousand persons, men and women, 
poured forth from the town on an appointed day, on 
which the same thing happened in Tournay and Valen- 
ciennes. The place of meeting was closed in with a 
line of vehicles, firmly fastened together, and behind 
them armed men were secretly posted, with a view to 
protect the service from any surprise. Of the preach- 
ers, most of whom were men of the very lowest class 



i82 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

— some were Germans, some were Huguenots — and 
spoke in the Walloon dialect; some even of the citi- 
zens felt themselves called upon to take a part in this 
sacred work, now that no fears of the officers of justice 
alarmed them. Many were drawn to the spot by mere 
curiosity to hear what kind of new and unheard-of 
doctrines these foreign teachers, whose arrival had 
caused so much talk, would set forth. Others were 
attracted by the melody of the psalms, which were 
sung in a French version, after the custom in Geneva. 
A great number came to hear these sermons as so 
many amusing comedies : such was the buffoonery 
with which the Pope, the fathers of the ecclesiastical 
council of Trent, purgatory, and other dogmas of the 
ruling church were abused in them. And, in fact, 
the more extravagant was this abuse and ridicule the 
more it tickled the ears of the lower orders; and a 
universal clapping of hands, as in a theatre, rewarded 
the speaker who had surpassed others in the wildness 
of his jokes and denunciations. But the ridicule 
which was thus cast upon the ruling church was, 
nevertheless, not entirely lost on the minds of the 
hearers, as neither were the few grains of truth or 
reason which occasionally slipped in among it ; and 
many a one, who had sought from these sermons 
anything but conviction, unconsciously carried away 
a little also of it. 

These assemblies were several times repeated, and 
each day augmented the boldness of the sectarians; 
till at last they even ventured, after concluding the 
service, to conduct their preachers home in triumph, 
with an escort of armed horsemen, and ostentatiously 
to brave the law. The town council sent express after 
express to the duchess, entreating her to visit them 
in person, and, if possible, to reside for a short time in 
Antwerp, as the only expedient to curb the arrogance 
of the populace ; and assuring her that the most emi- 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 183 

nent merchants, afraid of being plundered, were already- 
preparing to quit it. Fear of staking tlie royal dignity 
on so hazardous a stroke of policy forbade her com- 
pliance ; but she despatched in her stead Count Megen, 
in order to treat with the magistrate for the introduc- 
tion of a garrison. The rebellious mob, who quickly 
got an inkling of the object of his visit, gathered 
around him with tumultuous cries, shouting, " He was 
known to them as a sworn enemy of the Gueux ; that 
it was notorious he was bringing upon them prisons and 
the Inquisition, and that he should leave the town 
instantly." H^ot was the tumult quieted till Megen 
was beyond the gates. The Calvinists now handed 
in to the magistrate a memorial, in which they showed 
that their great numbers made it impossible for them 
henceforward to assemble in secrecy, and requested a 
separate place of worship to be allowed them inside the 
town. The town council renewed its entreaties to the 
duchess to assist, by her personal presence, their per- 
plexities, or at least to send to them the Prince of 
Orange, as the only person for whom the people still 
had any respect, and, moreover, as specially bound to 
the town of Antwerp by his hereditary title of its bur- 
grave. In order to escape the greater evil she was 
compelled to consent to the second demand, however 
much against her inclination to entrust Antwerp to the 
prince. After allowing himself to be long and fruitlessly 
entreated, for he had all at once resolved to take no 
further share in public affairs, he yielded at last to the 
earnest persuasions of the regent and the boisterous 
wishes of the people. Brederode, with a numerous 
retinue, came half a mile out of the town to meet him, 
and both parties saluted each other with a discharge of 
pistols. Antwerp appeared to have poured out all her 
inhabitants to welcome her deliverer. The highroad 
swarmed with multitudes, the roofs were taken off the 
houses in order that they might accommodate more 



1 84 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

spectators ; behind fences, from churchyard walls, even 
out of graves started up men. The attachment of the 
people to the prince showed itself in childish effusions. 
" Long live the Gueux ! " was the shout with which 
young and old received him. "Behold," cried others, 
" the man who shall give us liberty." " He brings us," 
cried the Lutherans, " the Confession of Augsburg ! " 
" We don't want the Gueux now ! " exclaimed others ; 
" we have no more need of the troublesome journey to 
Brussels. He alone is everything to us ! " Those who 
knew not what to say vented their extravagant joy in 
psalms, which they vociferously chanted as they moved 
along. He, however, maintained his gravity, beckoned 
for silence, and at last, when no one would listen to 
him, exclaimed with indignation, half real and half 
affected, " By God, they ought to consider what they 
did, or they would one day repent what they had now 
done." The shouting increased even as he rode into 
the town. The first conference of the prince with the 
heads of the different religious sects, whom he sent for 
and separately interrogated, presently convinced him 
that the chief source of the evil was the mutual dis- 
trust of the several parties, and the suspicions which 
the citizens entertained of the designs of the govern- 
ment, and that therefore it must be his first business 
to restore confidence among them all. First of all he 
attempted, both by persuasion and artifice, to induce 
the Calvinists, as the most numerous body, to lay down 
their weapons, and in this he at last, with much labour, 
succeeded. When, however, some wagons were soon 
afterward seen laden with ammunition in Malines, and 
the high bailiff of Brabant showed himself frequently 
in the neighbourhood of Antwerp with an armed force, 
the Calvinists, fearing hostile interruption of their 
religious worship, besought the prince to allot them a 
place within the walls for their sermons, which should 
be secure from a surprise. He succeeded once more in 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 185 

pacifying them, and his presence fortunately prevented 
an outbreak on the Assumption of the Virgin, which, 
as usual, had drawn a crowd to the town, and from 
whose sentiments there was but too much reason for 
alarm. The image of the Virgin was, with the usual 
pomp, carried around the town ^vithout interruption ; a 
few words of abuse, and a suppressed murmur about 
idolatry, was all that the disappro\T[ng multitudes in- 
dulged in against the procession. 

(1566.) "While the regent received from one province 
after another the most melancholy accounts of the ex- 
cesses of the Protestants, and while she trembled for 
Antwerp, which she was compelled to leave in the dan- 
gerous hands of the Prince of Orange, a new terror 
assailed her from another quarter. Upon the first 
authentic tidings of the public preaching, she immedi- 
ately called upon the league to fulfil its promises and 
to assist her in restoring order. Count Brederode used 
this pretext to summon a general meeting of the whole 
league, for which he could not have selected a more 
dangerous moment than the present. So ostentatious 
a disjjlay of the strength of the league, whose existence 
and protection had alone encouraged the Protestant 
mob to go the length it had already gone, would now 
raise the confidence of the sectarians, while in the 
same degree it depressed the courage of the regent. 
The convention took place in the town of Liege St. 
Truyen, into which Brederode and Louis of Kassau 
had thrown themselves at the head of two thousand 
confederates. As the long delay of the royal answer 
from Madrid seemed to presage no good from that 
quarter, they considered it ad\T.sable in any case to 
extort from the regent a letter of indemnity for their 
persons. 

Those among them who were conscious of a disloyal 
sympathy with the Protestant mob looked on its hcen- 
tiousness as a favourable circumstance for the league ; 



1 86 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

the apparent success of those to whose degrading fel- 
lowship they had deigned to stoop led them to alter 
their tone ; their fornaer laudable zeal began to degen- 
erate into insolence and defiance. Many thought that 
they ought to avail themselves of the general confusion 
and the perplexity of the duchess to assume a bolder 
tone and heap demand upon demand. The Eoman 
Catholic members of the league, among whom many 
were in their hearts still strongly inchned to the 
royal cause, and who had been drawn into a connection 
with the league by occasion and example, rather than 
from feeling and conviction, now heard to their aston- 
ishment propositions for establishing universal freedom 
of religion, and were not a little shocked to discover 
in how perilous an enterprise they had hastily imph- 
cated themselves. On this discovery the young Count 
Mansfeld withdrew immediately from it, and internal 
dissensions already began to undermine the work of 
precipitation and haste, and imperceptibly to loosen 
the joints of the league. 

Count Egmont and William of Orange were empow- 
ered by the regent to treat with the confederates. 
Twelve of the latter, among whom were Louis of 
Nassau, Brederode, and Kuilemberg, conferred with 
them in Duffle, a village near Malines. "Wherefore 
this new step ? " demanded the regent by the mouth 
of these two noblemen. " I was required to despatch 
ambassadors to Spain ; and I sent them. The edicts 
and the Inquisition w^ere complained of as too rigor- 
ous ; I have rendered both more lenient. A general 
assembly of the states of the realm was proposed ; 
I have submitted this request to the king because I 
could not grant it from my own authority. \Miat, 
then, have I unwittingly either omitted or done 
that should render necessary this assembling in 
St. Truyen ? Is it perhaps fear of the king's anger 
and of its consequences that disturbs the confederates ? 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 187 

The provocation certainly is great, but his mercy is 
even greater. Where now is the promise of the league 
to excite no disturbances amongst the people ? Where 
those high-sounding professions that they were ready 
to die at my feet rather than offend against any of the 
prerogatives of the crown ? The innovators already 
venture on things which border closely on rebelhon, 
and threaten the state with destruction ; and it is to 
the league that they appeal. If it continues silently 
to tolerate this it will justly bring on itself the charge 
of participating in the guilt of their offences ; if it is 
honestly disposed toward the sovereign it cannot remain 
longer inactive in this licentiousness of the mob. But, 
in truth, does it not itself outstrip the insane popu- 
lation by its dangerous example, concluding, as it is 
known to do, alliances with the enemies of the country, 
and confirming the evil report of its designs by the 
present illegal meeting ? " 

Against these reproaches the league formally justi- 
fied itself in a memorial which it deputed three of its 
members to deliver to the Council of State at Brussels. 

" All," it commenced, " that your Highness has done 
in respect to our petition we have felt with the most 
lively gratitude; and we cannot complain of any new 
measure, subsequently adopted, inconsistent with your 
promise ; but we cannot help coming to the conclusion 
that the orders of your Highness are by the judicial 
courts, at least, very little regarded ; for we are con- 
tinually hearing — and our own eyes attest to the 
truth of the report — that in all quarters our fellow 
citizens are in spite of the orders of your Highness 
still mercilessly dragged before the courts of justice 
and condemned to death for religion. What the league 
engaged on its part to do it has honestly fulfilled ; it 
has, too, to the utmost of its power, endeavoured to 
prevent the public preachings ; but it certainly is no 
wonder if the long delay of an answer from Madrid 



i88 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

fills the mind of the people with distrust, and if the 
disappointed hopes of a general assembly of the states 
disposes them to put little faith in any further assur- 
ances. The league has never alhed, nor ever felt any 
temptation to ally, itself with the enemies of the coun- 
try. If the arms of France were to appear in the 
provinces we, the confederates, would be the first to 
mount and drive them back again. The league, how- 
ever, desires to be candid with your Highness. We 
thought we read marks of displeasure in your coun- 
tenance ; we see men in exclusive possession of your 
favour who are notorious for their hatred against us. 
We daily hear that persons are warned from associat- 
ing with us, as with those infected with the plague, 
while we are denounced with the arrival of the king 
as with the opening of a day of judgment — what is 
more natural than that such distrust shown to us 
should at last rouse our own ? That the attempt to 
blacken our league with the reproach of treason, that 
the warlike preparations of the Duke of Savoy and of 
other princes, which, according to common report, are 
directed against ourselves ; the negotiations of the king 
with the French court to obtain a passage through that 
kingdom for a Spanish army, which is destined, it is 
said, for the Netherlands — what wonder if these and 
similar occurrences should have stimulated us to think 
in time of the means of self-defence, and to strengthen 
ourselves by an alliance with our friends beyond the 
frontier ? On a general, uncertain, and vague rumour 
we are accused of a share in this licentiousness of the 
Protestant mob ; but who is safe from general rumour ? 
True it is, certainly, that of our numbers some are 
Protestants, to whom religious toleration would be a 
welcome boon; but even they have never forgotten 
what they owe to their sovereign. It is not fear of 
the king's anger which instigated us to hold this assem- 
bly. The king is good, and we still hope that he is 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 189 

also just. It cannot, therefore, be pardon that we seek 
from him, and just as little can it be oblivion that we 
solicit for our actions, which are far from being the 
least considerable of the services we have at different 
times rendered his Majesty. Again, it is true that the 
delegates of the Lutherans and Calvinists are with us 
in St. Truyen ; nay, more, they have delivered to us a 
petition which, annexed to this memorial, we here 
present to your Highness. In it they offer to go un- 
armed to their preachings if the league will tender its 
security to them, and be willing to engage for a general 
meeting of the states. We have thought it incumbent 
upon us to communicate both these matters to you, for 
our guarantee can have no force unless it is at the same 
time confirmed by your Highness and some of your 
principal counsellors. Among these no one can be so 
well acquainted with the circumstances of our cause, 
or be so upright in intention toward us, as the Prince 
of Orange and Counts Horn and Egmont. We gladly 
accept these three as mediators if the necessary powers 
are given to them, and assurance is afforded us that no 
troops will be enlisted without their knowledge. This 
guarantee, however, we only require for a given period, 
before the expiration of which it will rest with the king 
whether he will cancel or confirm it for the future. If 
the first should be his will, it will then be but fair that 
time should be allowed us to place our persons and our 
property in security ; for this three weeks will be suf- 
ficient. Finally, and in conclusion, we on our part also 
pledge ourselves to undertake nothing new without the 
concurrence of those three persons, our mediators." 

The league would not have ventured to hold such 
bold language if it had not reckoned on powerful sup- 
port and protection ; but the regent was as little in a 
condition to concede their demands as she was inca- 
pable of vigorously opposing them. Deserted in Brus- 
sels by most of her counsellors of state, who had either 



190 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

departed to their provinces, or under some pretext or 
other had altogether withdrawn from pubhc affairs; 
destitute as well of advisers as of money (the latter 
want had compelled her, in the first instance, to appeal 
to the liberality of the clergy; when this proved in- 
sufficient, to have recourse to a lottery), dependent on 
orders from Spain, which were ever expected and never 
received, she was at last reduced to the degrading 
expedient of entering into a negotiation with the con- 
federates in St. Truyen, that they should wait twenty- 
four days longer for the king's resolution before they 
took any further steps. It was certainly surprising 
that the king still continued to delay a decisive answer 
to the petition, although it was universally known 
that he had answered letters of a much later date, and 
that the regent earnestly importuned him on this head. 
She had also, on the commencement of the public 
preaching, immediately despatched the Marquis of Ber- 
gen after the Baron of Montigny, who, as an eye-wit- 
ness of these new occurrences, could confirm her written 
statements, to move the king to an earlier decision. 

(1566.) In the meanwhile, the Flemish ambassador, 
Florence of Montigny, had arrived in Madrid, where he 
was received with a great show of consideration. His 
instructions were to press for the abolition of the 
Inquisition and the mitigation of the edicts ; the aug- 
mentation of the Council of State, and the incorporation 
with it of the two other councils; the calling of a 
general assembly of the states, and, lastly, to urge the 
soHcitations of the regent for a personal visit from the 
king. As the latter, however, was only desirous of 
gaining time, Montigny was put off with fair words 
until the arrival of his coadjutor, without whom the 
king was not willing to come to any final determina- 
tion. In the meantime, Montigny had every day and 
at any hour that he desired, an audience with the 
king, who also commanded that on all occasions the 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 191 

despatches of the duchess and the answers to them 
should be communicated to himsell He was, too, 
frequently admitted to the council for Belgian affairs, 
where he never omitted to call the king's attention to 
the necessity of a general assembly of the states, as 
being the only means of successfully meeting the 
troubles which had arisen, and as likely to supersede 
the necessity of any other measure. He moreover im- 
pressed upon him that a general and unreserved in- 
demnity for the past would alone eradicate the distrust, 
which was the source of all existing complaints, and 
would always counteract the good effects of every 
measure, however well advised. He ventured, from a 
thorough acquaintance with circumstances and accurate 
knowledge of the character of his countrymen, to 
pledge himself to the king for their inviolable loyalty, 
as soon as they should be convinced of the honesty of 
his intentions by the straightforwardness of his pro- 
ceedings ; while, on the contrary, he assured him that 
there would be no hopes of it as long as they were not 
relieved of the fear of being made the victims of the 
oppression, and sacrificed to the envy of the Spanish 
nobles. At last Montigny's coadjutor made his appear- 
ance, and the objects of their embassy were made the 
subject of repeated deliberations. 

(1566.) The king was at that time at his palace at 
Segovia, where also he assembled his State Council. 
The members were : the Duke of Alva ; Don Gomez 
de Figueroa ; the Count of Feria ; Don Antonio of 
Toledo, G-rand Commander of St. John ; Don John 
Manriquez of Lara, Lord Steward to the Queen ; Euy 
Gomez, Prince of Eboli and Count of Melito ; Louis of 
Quixada, Master of the Horse to the Prince ; Charles 
Tyssenacque, President of the Council for the Nether- 
lands; Hopper, State Counsellor and Keeper of the 
Seal; and State Counsellor Corteville. The sitting of 
the council was protracted for several days ; both am- 



192 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

bassadors were in attendance, but the king was not 
himself present. Here, then, the conduct of the Belgian 
nobles was examined by Spanish eyes ; step by step it 
was traced back to the most distant source; circum- 
stances were brought into relation with others which, 
in reahty, never had any connection ; and what had 
been the offspring of the moment was made out to be 
a well-matured and far-sighted plan. All the different 
transactions and attempts of the nobles, which had 
been governed solely by chance, and to which the 
natural order of events alone assigned their particular 
shape and succession, were said to be the result of a 
preconcerted scheme for introducing universal liberty 
in rehgion, and for placing all the power of the state 
in the hands of the nobles. The first step to this end 
was, it was said, the violent expulsion of the minister, 
Granvella, against whom nothing could be charged, 
except that he was in possession of an authority which 
they preferred to exercise themselves. The second 
step was sending Count Egmont to Spain to urge the 
abolition of the Inquisition and the mitigation of the 
penal statutes, and to prevail on the king to consent 
to an augmentation of the Council of State. As, how- 
ever, this could not be surreptitiously obtained in so 
quiet a manner, the attempt was made to extort it 
from the court by a third and more daring step — by 
a formal conspiracy, the league of the Gueux. The 
fourth step to the same end was the present embassy, 
which at length boldly cast aside the mask, and by 
the insane proposals which they were not ashamed to 
make to their king, clearly brought to hght the object 
to which all the preceding steps had tended. Could 
the abolition of the Inquisition, they exclaimed, lead 
to anything less than a complete freedom of behef? 
Would not the guiding helm of conscience be lost 
with it ? Did not the proposed " moderation" intro- 
duce an absolute impunity for all heresies ? What 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 193 

-was the project of augmenting the Council of State 
and of suppressing the two other councils but a com- 
plete remodelling of the government of the country in 
favour of the nobles ? — a general constitution for all 
the provinces of the Netherlands ? Again, what was 
this compact of the ecclesiastics in their public preach- 
ings but a third conspiracy, entered into with the very 
same obiects which the league of the nobles in the 
Council of State and that of the Gueux had failed to 
effect ? 

However, it was confessed that whatever might be 
the source of the evil it was not on that account the 
less important and imminent. The immediate personal 
presence of the king in Brussels was, indubitably, the 
most efficacious means speedily and thoroughly to 
remedy it. As, however, it was abeady so late in the 
year, and the preparations alone for the journey would 
occupy the short time which was to elapse before the 
winter set in ; as the stormy season of the year, as well 
as the danger from French and English ships, which 
rendered the sea unsafe, did not allow of the king's tak- 
ing the northern route, which was the shorter of the 
two ; as the rebels themselves meanwhile might become 
possessed of the island of Walcheren, and oppose the 
landing of the king ; for all these reasons, the journey 
was not to be thought of before the spring, and in 
absence of the only complete remedy it was necessary 
to rest satisfied with a partial expedient. The council, 
therefore, agreed to propose to the king, in the first 
place, that he should recall the papal Inquisition from 
the provinces and rest satisfied with that of the 
bishops ; in the second place, that a new plan for the 
mitigation of the edicts should be projected, by which 
the honour of religion and of the king would be better 
preserved than it had been in the transmitted "modera- 
tion ; " thirdly, that in order to reassure the minds of 
the people, and to leave no means untried, the king 



194 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

should impart to the regent full powers to extend free 
grace and pardon to all those who had not already 
committed any heinous crime, or who had not as yet 
been condemned by any judicial process ; but from the 
benefit of this indemnity the preachers and all who 
harboured them were to be excepted. On the other 
hand, all leagues, associations, public assemblies, and 
preachings were to be henceforth prohibited under 
heavy penalties ; if, however, this prohibition should be 
infringed, the regent was to be at hberty to employ the 
regular troops and garrisons for the forcible reduction of 
the refractory, and also, in case of necessity, to enlist 
new troops, and to name the commanders over them 
according as should be deemed advisable. Finally, it 
would have a good effect if his Majesty would write to 
the most eminent towns, prelates, and leaders of the 
nobility, to some in his own hand, and to all in a 
gracious tone, in order to stimulate their zeal in his 
service. 

When this resolution of his Council of State was 
submitted to the king his first measure was to com- 
mand public processions and prayers in all the most 
considerable places of the kingdom and also of the 
Netherlands, imploring the divine guidance in his 
decision. He appeared in his own person in the Coun- 
cil of State in order to approve this resolution and 
render it effective. He declared the general assembly 
of the states to be useless and entirely abolished it. 
He, however, bound himself to retain some German 
regiments in his pay, and, that they might serve 
with the more zeal, to pay them their long-standing 
arrears. He commanded the regent in a private letter 
to prepare secretly for war ; three thousand horse and 
ten thousand infantry were to be assembled by her 
in Germany, to which end he furnished her with the 
necessary letters and transmitted to her a sum of 
three hundred thousand gold florins. He also accom- 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 195 

panied this resolution with several autograph letters 
to some private individuals and towns, in which he 
thanked them in the most gracious terms for the zeal 
which they had already displayed in his service and 
called upon them to manifest the same for the future. 
Notwithstanding that he was inexorable on the most 
important point, and the very one on which the nation 
most particularly insisted — the convocation of the 
states, notwithstanding that his limited and ambiguous 
pardon was as good as none, and depended too much 
on arbitrary will to calm the public mind ; notwith- 
standing, in fine, that he rejected, as too lenient, the 
proposed " moderation," but which, on the part of the 
people, was complained of as too severe ; still he had 
this time made an unwonted step in the favour of 
the nation ; he had sacrificed to it the papal Inquisition 
and left only the episcopal, to which it was accus- 
tomed. The nation had found more equitable judges 
in the Spanish council than they could reasonably have 
hoped for. Whether at another time and under other 
circumstances this wise concession would have had the 
desired effect we will not pretend to say. It came too 
late; when (1566) the royal letters reached Brussels 
the attack on images had already commenced. 



BOOK IV. 

THE ICONOCLASTS. 

The springs of this extraordinary occurrence are 
plainly not to be sought for so far back as many 
historians affect to trace them. It is certainly possible, 
and very pr()ba])k^, that the French Protestants did 
industriously exert themselves to raise in the Netli- 
erlands a nursery for their rehgion, and to prevent 
by all means in their power an amicable adjustment 
of dilferences between their bretln-en in the faith in 
that quarter and the King of Spain, in order to 
give tliat implacable foe of their party enough to do in 
his own country. It is natural, therefore, to suppose 
tliat their agents in the provinces left nothing undone 
to encourage their oppressed brethren with daring 
hopes, to nourish their animosity against the ruling 
church, and by exaggerating the oppression under 
which they sighed to hurry them imperceptibly into 
illegal courses. It is possible, too, that there were 
many among the confederates who thought to help 
out their own lost cause by increasing the number 
of their partners in guilt ; who thought they could 
not otherwise maintain the legal character of their 
league unless the unfortunate results against wliich 
they had warned the king really came to pass, and 
who hoped in the general guilt of all to conceal tlieir 
own individual criminality. It is, however, incredi})le 
that the outbreak of the Iconoclasts was the fruit of 
a deliberate plan, preconcerted, as it is alleged, at the 

196 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 197 

convent of St. Truyen. It does not seem likely that 
in a solemn assembly of so many nobles and warriors, 
of whom the greater part were the adherents of popery, 
an individual should be found insane enough to pro- 
pose an act of positive infamy, which did not so much 
injure any religious party in particular, as rather tread 
under foot all respect for religion in general, and even 
all morality too, and which could have been conceived 
only in the mind of the vilest reprobate. Besides, this 
outrage was too sudden in its outbreak, too vehement 
in its execution altogether, too monstrous to have been 
anything more than the offspring of the moment in 
which it saw the light ; it seemed to flow so naturally 
from the circumstances which preceded it that it does 
not require to be traced far back to remount to its 
origin. 

A rude mob, consisting of the very dregs of the pop- 
ulace, made brutal by harsh treatment, by sanguinary 
decrees which dogged them in every town, scared from 
place to place and driven almost to despair, were com- 
pelled to worship their God, and to hide like a work 
of darkness the universal, sacred privilege of humanity. 
Before their eyes proudly rose the temples of the domi- 
nant church, in which their haughty brethren indulged 
in ease their magnificent devotion, while they them- 
selves were driven from the walls, expelled too, by the 
weaker number perhaps, and forced, here in the wild 
woods, under the burning heat of noon, in disgraceful 
secrecy to worship the same God; cast out from civil 
society into a state of nature, and reminded in one 
dread moment of the rights of that state ! The greater 
their superiority of numbers the more unnatural did 
their lot appear ; with wonder they perceive the truth. 
The free heaven, the arms lying ready, the frenzy in 
their brains and fury in their hearts combine to aid 
the suggestions of some preaching fanatic; the occa- 
sion calls; no premeditation is necessary where all 



198 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

eyes at once declare consent ; the resolution is formed 
ere yet the word is scarcely uttered; ready for any 
unlawful act, no one yet clearly knows what, the 
furious band rushes onwards. The smiling prosperity 
of the hostile religion insults the poverty of their 
own ; the pomp of the authorised temples casts con- 
tempt on their proscribed belief; every cross they set 
up upon the highway, every image of the saints that 
they meet, is a trophy erected over their own humilia- 
tion, and they all must be removed by their avenging 
hands. Fanaticism suggests these detestable proceed- 
ings, but base passions carry them into execution. 

(1566.) The commencement of the attack on im- 
ages took place in West Flanders and Artois, in the 
districts between Lys and the sea. A frantic herd 
of artisans, boatmen, and peasants, mixed with pros- 
titutes, beggars, vagabonds, and thieves, about three 
hundred in number, furnished with clubs, axes, ham- 
mers, ladders, and cords (a few only were provided 
with swords or firearms), cast themselves, with fanati- 
cal fury, into the villages and hamlets near St. Omer, 
and breaking open the gates of such churches and 
cloisters as they find locked, overthrow everywhere 
the altars, break to pieces the images of the saints, and 
trample them under foot. With their excitement 
increased by its indulgence, and reinforced by new- 
comers, they press on by the direct road to Ypres, 
where they can count on the support of a strong body 
of Calvinists. Unopposed, they break into the cathe- 
dral, and mounting on ladders they hammer to pieces 
the pictures, hew down with axes the pulpits and 
pews, despoil the altars of their ornaments, and steal 
the holy vessels. This example was quickly followed 
in Menin, Comines, Verrich, Lille, and Gudenard ; in 
a few days the same fury spreads through the whole of 
Flanders. At the very time when the first tidings of 
this occurrence arrived, Antwerp was swarming wdth 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 199 

a crowd of houseless people, which the feast of the 
Assumption of the Virgin had brought together in that 
city. Even the presence of the Prince of Orange was 
hardly sufficient to restrain the licentious mob, who 
burned to imitate the doings of their brethren in St. 
Omer ; but an order from the court which summoned 
him to Brussels, where the regent was just assembling 
her Council of State, in order to lay before them the 
royal letters, obliged him to abandon Antwerp to the 
outrages of his band. His departure was the signal 
for tumult. Apprehensive of the lawless violence of 
which, on the very first day of the festival, the mob 
had given indications in derisory allusions, the priests, 
after carrying about the image of the Virgin for a short 
time, brought it for safety to the choir, without, as 
formerly, setting it up in the middle of the church. 
This incited some mischievous boys from among the 
people to pay it a visit there, and jokingly inquire 
why she had so soon absented herself from among 
them? Others, mounting the pulpit, mimicked the 
preacher, and challenged the papists to a dispute. A 
Eoman Catholic waterman, indignant at this jest, 
attempted to pull them down, and blows were ex- 
changed in the preacher's seat. Similar scenes 
occurred on the following evening. The numbers 
increased, and many came already provided with sus- 
picious implements and secret weapons. At last it 
came into the head of one of them to cry, " Long live 
the Gueux ! " immediately the whole band took up the 
cry, and the image of the Virgin was called upon to do 
the same. The few Eoman Catholics who were present, 
and who had given up the hope of effecting anything 
against these desperadoes, left the church after locking 
all the doors except one. So soon as they found 
themselves alone it was proposed to sing one of the 
psalms in the new version, which was prohibited by 
the government. While they were yet singing they 



200 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

all, as at a given signal, rushed furiously upon the 
image of the Virgin, piercing it with swords and dag- 
gers, and striking off its head ; thieves and prostitutes 
tore the great wax-lights from the altar, and lighted 
^them to the work. The beautiful organ of the church, 
a masterpiece of the art of that period, was broken 
to pieces, all the paintings were effaced, the statues 
smashed to atoms. A crucifix, the size of life, which 
was set up between the two thieves, opposite the high 
altar, an ancient and highly valued piece of workman- 
ship, was pulled to the ground with cords, and cut to 
pieces with axes, while the two malefactors at its side 
were respectfully spared. The holy wafers were 
strewed on the ground and trodden underfoot ; in the 
wine used for the Lord's Supper, which was accidentally 
found there, the health of the Glueux was drunk, while 
with the holy oil they rubbed their shoes. The very 
tombs were opened, and the half-decayed corpses torn 
up and trampled on. All this was done with as much 
wonderful regularity as if each had previously had his 
part assigned to him ; every one worked into his neigh- 
bour's hands ; no one, dangerous as the work was, met 
with injury ; in the midst of thick darkness, which the 
tapers only served to render more sensible, with heavy 
masses falling on all sides, and though on the very 
topmost steps of the ladders, they scuffled with each 
other for the honours of demohtion — yet no one 
suffered the least injury. In spite of the many tapers 
which lighted them below in their villainous work, not 
a single individual was recognised. With incredible 
rapidity was the dark deed accomplished ; a number 
/ of men, at most a hundred, despoiled in a few hours 
' a temple of seventy altars — after St. Peter's at Kome, 
perhaps the largest and most magnificent in Christen- 
dom. 

The devastation of the cathedral did not content 
them ; with torches and tapers purloined from it they 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 201 

set out at midnight to perform a similar work of havoc 
on the remaining churches, cloisters, and chapels. The 
destructive hordes increased with every fresh exploit 
of infamy, and thieves were allured by the opportunity. 
They carried away whatever they found of value — 
the consecrated vessels, altar-cloths, money, and vest^ 
ments ; in the cellars of the cloisters they drank to 
intoxication ; to escape greater indignities the monks 
and nuns abandoned everything to them. The con- 
fused noises of these riotous acts had startled the citi- 
zens from their first sleep ; but night made the danger 
appear more alarming than it really was, and instead 
of hastening to defend their churches the citizens 
fortified themselves in their houses, and in terror and 
anxiety awaited the dawn of morning. The rising sun 
at length revealed the devastation which had been 
going on during the night; but the havoc did not 
terminate with the darkness. Some churches and 
cloisters still remained uninjured ; the same fate soon 
overtook them also. The work of destruction lasted 
three whole days. Alarmed at last lest the frantic 
mob, when it could no longer find anything sacred to 
destroy, should make a similar attack on lay property 
and plunder their warehouses ; and encouraged too, 
by discovering how small was the number of the 
depredators, the wealthier citizens ventured to show 
themselves in arms at the doors of their houses. All 
the gates of the town were locked but one, through 
which the Iconoclasts broke forth to renew the same 
atrocities in the rural districts. On one occasion only 
during all this time did the municipal officers venture 
to exert their authority, so strongly were they held in 
awe by the superior power of the Calvinists, by whom, 
as it was believed, this mob of miscreants was hired. 
The injury inflicted by this work of devastation was 
incalculable. In the Church of the Virgin it was esti- 
mated at not less than four hundred thousand gold 



202 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

florins. Many precious works of art were destroyed; 
many valuable manuscripts ; many monuments of im- 
portance to history and to diplomacy were thereby 
lost. The city magistrate ordered the plundered 
articles to be restored on pain of death ; in enforcing 
this restitution he was effectually assisted by the 
preachers of the Eeformers, who blushed for their 
followers. Much was in this manner recovered, and 
the ringleaders of the mob, less animated, perhaps, by 
the desire of plunder than by fanaticism and revenge, 
or perhaps being ruled by some unseen head, resolved 
for the future to guard against these excesses, and to 
make their attacks in regular bands and in better 
order. 

The town of Ghent, meanwhile, trembled for a like 
destiny. Immediately on the first news of the out- 
break of the Iconoclasts in Antwerp the magistrate of 
the former town with the most eminent citizens had 
bound themselves to repel by force the church spoilers ; 
when this oath was proposed to the commonalty also 
the voices were divided, and many declared openly 
that they were by no means disposed to hinder so 
devout a work. In this state of affairs the Roman 
Catholic clergy found it advisable to deposit in the 
citadel the most precious movables of their churches, 
and private families were permitted in like manner to 
provide for the safety of offerings which had been 
made by their ancestors. Meanwhile all the services 
were discontinued, the courts of justice were closed; 
and, like a town in momentary danger of being stormed 
by the enemy, men trembled in expectation of what 
was to come. At last an insane band of rioters ven- 
tured to send delegates to the governor with this im- 
pudent message : " They were ordered," they said, " by 
their chiefs to take the images out of the churches, as 
had been done in the other towns. If they were not 
opposed it should be done quietly and with as little 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 203 

injury as possible, but otherwise they would storm the 
churches ; " nay, they went so far in their audacity as 
to ask the aid of the officers of justice therein. At 
first the magistrate was astounded at this demand ; 
upon reflection, however, and in the hope that the 
presence of the officers of law would perhaps restrain 
their excesses, he did not scruple to grant their re- 
quest. 

In Tournay the churches were despoiled of their 
ornaments within sight of the garrison, who could not 
be induced to march against the Iconoclasts. As the 
latter had been told that the gold and silver vessels 
and other ornaments of the church were buried under- 
ground, they turned up the whole floor, and exposed, 
among others, the body of the Duke Adolph of Guel- 
ders, who fell in battle at the head of the rebellious 
burghers of Ghent, and had been buried here in Tour- 
nay. This Adolph had waged war against his father, 
and had dragged the vanquished old man some miles 
barefoot to prison — an indignity which Charles the 
Bold afterward retaliated on him. And now, again, 
after more than half a century, fate avenged a crime 
against nature by another against religion ; fanaticism 
was to desecrate that which was holy in order to 
expose once more to execration the bones of a parri- 
cide. Other Iconoclasts from Valenciennes united 
themselves with those of Tournay to despoil all the 
cloisters of the surrounding district, during which a 
valuable Hbrary, the accumulation of centuries, was 
destroyed by fire. The evil soon penetrated into Bra- 
bant, also Mahnes, Herzogenbusch, Breda, and Bergen- 
op-Zoom experienced the same fate. The provinces 
IN'amur and Luxemburg, with a part of Artois and of 
Hainault, had alone the good fortune to escape the 
contagion of those outrages. In the short period of 
four or five days four hundred cloisters were plundered 
in Brabant and Flanders alone. 



204 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

The northern Netherlands were soon seized with the 
same mania which had raged so violently through the 
southern. The Dutch towns, Amsterdam, Leyden, and 
Gravenhaag, had the alternative of either voluntarily 
stripping their churches of their ornaments, or of see- 
ing them violently torn from them ; the determination 
of their magistrates saved Delft, Haarlem, Gouda, and 
Eotterdam from the devastation. The same acts of 
violence were practised also in the islands of Zealand ; 
the town of Utrecht and many places in Overyssel and 
Groningen suffered the same storms. Friesland was 
protected by the Count of Arenberg, and Guelders by 
the Count of Megen from a like fate. 

An exaggerated report of these disturbances which 
came in from the provinces spread the alarm to Brus- 
sels, where the regent had just made preparations 
for an extraordinary session of the Council of State. 
Swarms of Iconoclasts already penetrated into Bra- 
bant ; and the metropolis, where they were certain of 
powerful support, was threatened by them with a re- 
newal of the same atrocities then under the very eyes 
of majesty. The regent, in fear for her personal 
safety, which, even in the heart of the country, sur- 
rounded by provincial governors and knights of the 
Fleece, she fancied insecure, was already meditating a 
flight to Mons, in Hainault, which town the Duke 
of Aerschot held for her as a place of refuge, that she 
might not be driven to any undignified concession by 
falling into the power of the Iconoclasts. In vain did 
the knights pledge life and blood for her safety, and 
urgently beseech her not to expose them to disgrace by 
so dishonourable a flight, as though they were wanting 
in courage or zeal to protect their princess ; to no 
purpose did the town of Brussels itseK supplicate her 
not to abandon them in this extremity, and vainly 
did the Council of State make the most impressive 
representations that so pusillanimous a step would not 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 205 

fail to encourage still more the insolence of the rebels ; 
she remained immovable in this desperate condition. 
As messenger after messenger arrived to warn her that 
the Iconoclasts were advancing against the metropolis, 
she issued orders to hold everything in readiness for 
her flight, which was to take place quietly with the 
first approach of morning. At break of day the aged 
Viglius presented himself before her, whom, with the 
view of gratifying the nobles, she had been long accus- 
tomed to neglect. He demanded to know the meaning 
of the preparations he observed, upon which she at last 
confessed that she intended to make her escape, and 
assured him that he would himself do well to secure 
his own safety by accompanying her. " It is now two 
years," said the old man to her, " that you might have 
anticipated these results. Because I have spoken more 
freely than your courtiers you have closed your princely 
ear to me, which has been open only to pernicious 
suggestions." The regent allowed that she had been 
in fault, and had been blinded by an appearance of 
probity ; but that she was now driven by necessity. 
"Are you resolved," answered Viglius, "resolutely to 
insist upon obedience to the royal commands ? " "I 
am," answered the duchess. " Then have recourse to 
the great secret of the art of government, to dissimula- 
tion, and pretend to join the princes until, with their 
assistance, you have repelled this storm. Show them 
a confidence which you are far from feehng in your 
heart. Make them take an oath to you that they will 
make common cause in resisting these disorders. Trust 
those as your friends who show themselves willing 
to do it ; but be careful to avoid frightening away the 
others by contemptuous treatment." Viglius kept the 
regent engaged in conversation until the princes arrived, 
who he was quite certain would in nowise consent 
to her flight. When they appeared he quietly with- 
drew in order to issue commands to the town council 



2o6 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

to close the gates of the city, and prohibit egress to 
every one connected with the court. This last meas- 
ure effected more than all the representations had 
done. The regent, who saw herself a prisoner in her 
own capital, now yielded to the persuasions of the 
nobles,, who pledged themselves to stand by her to 
the last drop of blood. She made Count Mansfeld 
commandant of the town, who hastily increased the 
garrison and armed her whole court. 

The State Council was now held, who finally came 
to a resolution that it was expedient to yield to the 
emergency ; to permit the preachings in those places 
where they had already commenced ; to make known 
the aboHtion of the papal Inquisition ; to declare the 
old edicts against the heretics repealed, and before all 
things to grant the required indemnity to the confed- 
erate nobles, without limitation or condition. At the 
same time the Prince of Orange, Counts Egmont and 
Horn, with some others, were appointed to confer on 
this head with the deputies of the league. Solemnly 
and in the most unequivocal terms the members of the 
league were declared free from all responsibility by 
reason of the petition which had been presented, and 
all royal officers and authorities were enjoined to act 
in conformity with this assurance, and neither now nor 
for the future to inflict any injury upon any of the 
confederates on account of the said petition. In re- 
turn, the confederates bound themselves to be true and 
loyal servants of his Majesty, to contribute to the 
utmost of their power to the reestablishment of order 
and the punishment of the Iconoclasts, to prevail on 
the people to lay down their arms, and to afford active 
assistance to the king against internal and foreign 
enemies. Securities, formally drawn up and subscribed 
by the plenipotentiaries of both sides, were exchanged 
between them; the letter of indemnity, in particular, 
was signed by the duchess vdth her own hand and 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 207 

attested by her seal. It was only after a severe strug- 
gle, and with tears in her eyes, that the regent, as she 
tremblingly confessed to the king, was at last induced 
to consent to this painful step. She threw the whole 
blame upon the nobles, who had kept her a prisoner in 
Brussels and compelled her to it by force. Above all 
she complained bitterly of the Prince of Orange. 

This business accomplished, all the governors has- 
tened to their provinces ; Egmont to Flanders, Orange 
to Antwerp. In the latter city the Protestants had 
seized the despoiled and plundered churches, and, as if 
by the rights of war, had taken possession of them. 
The prince restored them to their lawful owners, gave 
orders for their repair, and reestablished in them the 
Eoman Catholic form of worship. Three of the Icono- 
clasts, who had been convicted, paid the penalty of 
their sacrilege on the gallows ; some of the rioters 
were banished, and many others underwent punish- 
ment. Afterward he assembled four deputies of each 
dialect, or nations, as they were termed, and agreed 
with them that, as the approaching winter made 
preaching in the open air impossible, three places 
within the town should be granted them, where they 
might either erect new churches, or convert private 
houses to that purpose. That they should there per- 
form their service every Sunday and holiday, and 
always at the same hour, but on no other days. If, 
however, no holiday happened in the week, Wednes- 
day should be kept by them instead. No religious 
party should maintain more than two clergymen, and 
these must be native Netherlanders, or at least have 
received naturalisation from some considerable town 
of the provinces. All should take an oath to submit 
in civil matters to the municipal authorities and the 
Prince of Orange. They should be liable, like the 
other citizens, to all imposts. No one should attend 
sermons armed ; a sword, however, should be allowed 



2o8 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

to each. No preacher should assail the ruling religion 
from the pulpit, nor enter upon controverted points, 
beyond what the doctrine itself rendered unavoidable, 
or what might refer to morals. No psalm should be 
sung by them out of their appointed district. At the 
election of their preachers, churchwardens, and deacons, 
as also at all their other consistorial meetings, a person 
from the government should on each occasion be 
present to report their proceedings to the prince and 
the magistrate. As to all other points they should 
enjoy the same protection as the ruling religion. This 
arrangement was to hold good until the king, with 
consent of the states, should determine otherwise ; but 
then it should be free to every one to quit the coun- 
try with his family and his property. From Antwerp 
the prince hastened to Holland, Zealand, and Utrecht, 
in order to make there similar arrangements for the 
restoration of peace; Antwerp, however, was, during 
his absence, entrusted to the superintendence of Count 
Hogstraten, who was a mild man, and although an 
adherent of the league, had never failed in loyalty to 
the king. It is evident that in this agreement the 
prince had far overstepped the powers entrusted to 
him, and though in the service of the king had acted 
exactly like a sovereign lord. But he alleged in excuse 
that it would be far easier to the magistrate to watch 
these numerous and powerful sects if he himself inter- 
fered in their worship, and if this took place under his 
eyes, than if he were to leave the sectarians to them- 
selves in the open air. 

In Guelders Count Megen showed more severity, 
and entirely suppressed the Protestant sects and 
banished all their preachers. In Brussels the regent 
availed herself of the advantage derived from her per- 
sonal presence to put a stop to the public preaching, 
even outside the town. When, in reference to this. 
Count Nassau reminded her in the name of the con- 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 209 

federates of the compact which had been entered into, 
and demanded if the town of Brussels had inferior 
rights to the other towns, she answered, if there were 
public preachings in Brussels before the treaty, it was 
not her work if they were now discontinued. At the 
same time, however, she secretly gave the citizens to 
understand that the first who should venture to attend 
a pubhc sermon should certainly be hung. Thus she 
kept the capital at least faithful to her. 

It was more difficult to quiet Tournay, which office 
was committed to Count Horn, in the place of Mon- 
tigny, to whose government the town properly be- 
longed. Horn commanded the Protestants to vacate 
the churches immediately, and to content themselves 
with a house of worship outside the walls. To this 
their preachers objected that the churches were erected 
for the use of the people, by which term, they said, 
not the heads but the majority were meant. If they 
were expelled from the Eoman Catholic churches it 
was at least fail' that they should be furnished with 
money for erecting churches of their own. To this 
the magistrate rephed even if the CathoHc party was 
the weaker it was indisputably the better. The erec- 
tion of churches should not be forbidden them; they 
could not, however, after the injury which the town 
had already suffered from their brethren, the Icono- 
clasts, very well expect that it should be further bur- 
dened by the erection of their churches. After long 
quarrelling on both sides, the Protestants contrived to 
retain possession of some churches, which, for greater 
security, they occupied with guards. In Valenciennes, 
too, the Protestants refused submission to the condi- 
tions which were offered to them through Phihp St. 
Aldegonde, Baron of Noircarmes, to whom, in the 
absence of the Marquis of Bergen, the government of 
that place was entrusted. A reformed preacher, La 
Grange, a Frenchman by birth, who by his eloquence 



2IO REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

had gained a complete command over them, urged 
them to insist on having churches of their own within 
the town, and to threaten in case of refusal to deliver 
it up to the Huguenots. A sense of the superior 
numbers of the Calvinists, and of their understanding 
with the Huguenots, prevented the governor adopting 
forcible measures against them. 

Count Egmont, also to manifest his zeal for the king's 
service, did violence to his natural kind-heartedness. 
Introducing a garrison into the town of Ghent, he 
caused some of the most refractory rebels to be put 
to death. The churches were reopened, the Eoman 
Catholic worship renewed, and all foreigners, without 
exception, ordered to quit the province. To the Calvin- 
ists, but to them alone, a site was granted outside the 
town for the erection of a church. In return they 
were compelled to pledge themselves to the most rigid 
obedience to the municipal authorities, and to active 
cooperation in the proceedings against the Iconoclasts. 
He pursued similar measures through all Flanders 
and Artois. One of his noblemen, John Cassembrot, 
Baron of Beckerzeel, and a leaguer, pursuing the Icon- 
oclasts at the head of some horsemen of the league, 
surprised a band of them just as they were about to 
break into a town of Hainault, near Grammont, in 
Flanders, and took thirty of them prisoners, of whom 
twenty-two were hung upon the spot, and the rest 
whipped out of the province. 

Services of such importance one would have thought 
scarcely deserved to be rewarded with the displeasure 
of the king ; what Orange, Egmont, and Horn performed 
on this occasion evinced at least as much zeal and had 
as beneficial a result as anything that was accomplished 
by Noircarmes, Megen, and Arenberg, to whom the 
king vouchsafed to show his gratitude both by words 
and deeds. But their zeal, their services, came too 
late. They had spoken too loudly against his edicts, 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 211 

had been too vehement in their opposition to his 
measures, had insulted him too grossly in the person 
of his minister Granyella, to leave room for forgiveness. 
No time, no repentance, no atonement, however great, 
could efface this one offence from the memory of their 
sovereign. 

Phihp lay sick at Segovia when the news of the out- 
break of the Iconoclasts and the uncatholic agreement 
entered into with the Eeformers reached him. At the 
same tin;e the regent renewed her urgent entreaty for 
his personal visit, of which also all the letters treated, 
which the President Viglius exchanged with his friend 
Hopper. Many also of the Belgian nobles addressed 
special letters to the king, as, for instance, Egmont, 
Mansfeld, Megen, Arenberg, Noircarmes, and Bar- 
laimont, in which they reported the state of their 
provinces, and at once explained and justified the ar- 
rangements they had made with the disaffected. Just 
at this period a letter arrived from the German em- 
peror, in which he recommended Philip to act with 
clemency toward his Belgian subjects and offered his 
mediation in the matter. He had also written direct 
to the regent herself in Brussels, and added letters to 
the several leaders of the nobility, which, however, 
were never delivered. Having conquered the first 
anger which this hateful occurrence had excited, the 
king referred the whole matter to his council. 

The party of Granvella, which had the preponder- 
ance in the council, was dihgent in tracing a close 
connection between the behaviour of the Flemish nobles 
and the excesses of the church desecrators, which 
showed itself in similarity of the demands of both 
parties, and especially the time which the latter chose 
for their outbreak. In the same month, they observed, 
in which the nobles had sent in their three articles 
of pacification, the Iconoclasts had commenced their 
work ; on the evening of the very day that Orange 



212 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

quitted Antwerp the churches too were plundered. 
During the whole tumult not a finger was hfted to 
take up arms ; all the expedients .employed were inva- 
riably such as turned to the advantage of the sects, 
while, on the contrary, all others were neglected which 
tended to the maintenance of the pure faith. Many 
of the Iconoclasts, it was further said, had confessed 
that all that they had done was with the knowledge 
and consent of the princes ; though surely nothing was 
more natural, than for such worthless wretches to seek 
to screen with great names a crime which they had 
undertaken solely on their own account. A writing 
also was produced in which the high nobihty were 
made to promise their services to the " Gueux," to 
procure the assembly of the states general, the genu- 
ineness of which, however, the former strenuously 
denied. Four different seditious parties were, they 
said, to be noticed in the Netherlands, which were 
all more or less connected with one another, and all 
worked toward a common end. One of these was 
those bands of reprobates who desecrated the churches ; 
a second consisted of the various sects who had hired 
the former to perform their infamous acts ; the " Gueux," 
who had raised themselves to be the defenders of the 
sects, were the third ; and the leading nobles, who were 
inclined to the " Gueux " by feudal connections, rela- 
tionship, and friendship, composed the fourth. All, 
consequently, were alike fatally infected and all equally 
guilty. The government had not merely to guard 
against a few isolated members ; it had to contend with 
the whole body. Since, then, it was ascertained that 
the people were the seduced party, and the encour- 
agement to rebellion came from higher quarters, it 
would be wise and expedient to alter the plan hitherto 
adopted, which now appeared defective in several 
respects. Inasmuch as all classes had been oppressed 
without distinction, and as much of severity shown 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 213 

to the lower orders as of contempt to the nohles, hoth. 
had been compelled to lend support to one another; 
a party had been given to the latter and leaders to 
the former. Unequal treatment seemed an infalhble 
expedient to separate them; the mob, always timid 
and indolent when not goaded by the extremity of dis- 
tress, would very soon desert its adored protectors and 
quickly learn to see in their fate well-merited retribu- 
tion if only it was not driven to share it with them. 
It was therefore proposed to the king to treat the 
great multitude for the future with more leniency, 
and to direct all measures of severity against the 
leaders of the faction. In order, however, to avoid 
the appearance of a disgraceful concession, it was con- 
sidered advisable to accept the mediation of the em- 
peror, and to impute to it alone and not to the justice 
of their demands, that the king out of pure generosity 
had granted to his Belgian subjects as much as they 
asked. 

The question of the king's personal visit to the prov- 
inces was now again mooted, and all the difficulties 
which had formerly been raised on this head appeared 
to vanish before the present emergency. " Now," said 
Tyssenacque and Hopper, "the juncture has really 
arrived at which the king, according to his own decla- 
ration formerly made to Count Egmont, will be ready 
to risk a thousand lives. To restore quiet to Ghent 
Charles V. had undertaken a troublesome and danger- 
ous journey through an enemy's country. This was 
done for the sake of a single town; and now the 
peace, perhaps even the possession, of all the United 
Provinces was at stake." This was the opinion of 
the majority ; and the journey of the king was looked 
upon as a matter from which he could not possibly 
any longer escape. 

The question now was, whether he should enter 
upon it with a numerous body of attendants or with 



2 14 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

few ; and here the Prince of Eboli and Count Figueroa 
were at issue with the Duke of Alva, as their private 
interests clashed. If the king journeyed at the head 
of an army the presence of the Duke of Alva would 
be indispensable, who, on the other hand, if matters 
were peaceably adjusted, would be less required, and 
must make room for his rivals. " An army," said 
Figueroa, who spoke first, " would alarm the princes 
through whose territories it must march, and perhaps 
even be opposed by them ; it would, moreover, unnec- 
essarily burden the provinces for whose tranquilh- 
sation it was intended, and add a new grievance to 
the many which had already driven the people to such 
lengths. It would press indiscriminately upon all of 
the king's subjects, whereas a court of justice, peace- 
ably administering its office, would observe a marked 
distinction between the innocent and the guilty. The 
unwonted violence of the former course would tempt 
the leaders of the faction to take a more alarming 
view of their behaviour, in which wantonness and 
levity had the chief share, and consequently induce 
them to proceed with deliberation and union ; the 
thought of having forced the king to such lengths 
would plunge them into despair, in which they would 
be ready to undertake anything. If the king placed 
himself in arms against the rebels he would forfeit the 
most important advantage which he possessed over 
them, namely, his authority as sovereign of the coun- 
try, which would prove the more powerful in propor- 
tion as he showed his reliance upon that alone. He 
would place himself thereby, as it were, on a level 
with the rebels, who on their side would not be at a 
loss to raise an army, as the universal hatred of the 
Spanish forces would operate in their favour with the 
nation. By this procedure the king would exchange 
the certain advantage which his position as sovereign 
of the country conferred upon him for the uncertain 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 215 

result of military operations, which, result as they 
might, would of necessity destroy a portion of his 
own subjects. The rumour of his hostile approach 
would outrun him time enough to allow all who were 
conscious of a bad cause to place themselves in a pos- 
ture of defence, and to combine and render availing 
both their foreign and domestic resources. Here again 
the general alarm would do them important service; 
the uncertainty who would be the first object of this 
warlike approach would drive even the less guilty to 
the general mass of the rebels, and force those to be- 
come enemies to the king who otherwise would never 
have been so. If, however, he was coming among 
them without such a formidable accompaniment ; if 
his appearance was less that of a sanguinary judge 
than of an angry parent, the courage of all good men 
would rise, and the bad would perish in their own 
security. They would persuade themselves what had 
happened was unimportant ; that it did not appear to 
the king of sufficient moment to call for strong meas- 
ures. They wished if they could to avoid the chance 
of ruining, by acts of open violence, a cause which 
might perhaps yet be saved; consequently, by this 
quiet, peaceable method everything would be gained 
which by the other would be irretrievably lost ; the 
loyal subject would in no degree be involved in the 
same punishment with the culpable rebel ; on the latter 
alone would the whole weight of the royal indignation 
descend. Lastly, the enormous expenses would be 
avoided which the transport of a Spanish army to 
those distant regions would occasion." 

" But," began the Duke of Alva, " ought the injury 
of some few citizens to be considered when danger 
impends over the whole ? Because a few of the loy- 
ally disposed may suffer wrong are the rebels therefore 
not to be chastised ? The offence has been universal, 
why then should not the punishment be the same ? 



2i6 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

What the rebels have incurred by their actions the 
rest have incurred equally by their supineness. Whose 
fault is it but theirs that the former have so far suc- 
ceeded ? Why did they not promptly oppose their 
first attempts ? It is said that circumstances were 
not so desperate as to justify this violent remedy ; but 
who will ensure us that they will not be so by the 
time the king arrives, especially when, according to 
every fresh despatch of the regent, all is hastening 
with rapid strides to a ruinous consummation ? Is it 
a hazard we ought to run to leave the king to discover 
on his entrance into the provinces the necessity of his 
having brought with him a military force ? It is a 
fact only too well estabhshed that the rebels have 
secured foreign succours, which stand ready at their 
command on the first signal ; will it then be time to 
think of preparing for war when the enemy pass the 
frontiers ? Is it a wise risk to rely for aid upon the 
nearest Belgian troops when their loyalty is so little 
to be depended upon ? And is not the regent perpetu- 
ally reverting in her despatches to the fact that nothing 
but the want of a suitable mihtary force has hitherto 
hindered her from enforcing the edicts, and stopping 
the progress of the rebels ? A well-disciplined and 
formidable army alone will disappoint all their hopes 
of maintaining themselves in opposition to their lawful 
sovereign, and nothing but the certain prospect of 
destruction will make them lower their demands. Be- 
sides, without an adequate force, the king cannot ven- 
ture his person in hostile countries ; he cannot enter 
into any treaties with his rebellious subjects which 
would not be derogatory to his honour." 

The authority of the speaker gave preponderance 
to his arguments, and the next question was, when the 
king should commence his journey and what road he 
should take. As the voyage by sea was on every 
account extremely hazardous, he had no other alterna- 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 217 

tive but either to proceed through the passes near 
Trent across Germany, or to penetrate from Savoy 
over the Apennine Alps. The first route would expose 
him to the danger of the attack of the G-erman Protes- 
tants, who were not likely to ^dew with indifference 
the objects of his journey, and a passage over the 
Apennines was at this late season of the year not to be 
attempted. Moreover, it would be necessary to send 
for the requisite galleys from Italy, and repair them, 
which would take several months. Finally, as the 
assembly of the Cortes of Castile, from which he could 
not well be absent, was already appointed for Decem- 
ber, the journey could not be undertaken before the 
spring. Meanwhile the regent pressed for explicit 
instructions how she was to extricate herseK from her 
present embarrassment, without compromising the 
royal dignity too far ; and it was necessary to do 
something in the interval till the king could undertake 
to appease the troubles by his personal presence. Two 
separate letters were therefore despatched to the duch- 
ess ; one public, which she could lay before the states 
and the council chambers, and one private, which was 
intended for herself alone. In the first, the king 
announced to her his restoration to health, and the 
fortunate birth of the Infanta Clara Isabella Eugenia, 
afterward wife of the Archduke Albert of Austria and 
Princess of the Netherlands. He declared to her his 
present firm intention to ^dsit the Netherlands in per- 
son, for which he was already making the necessary 
preparations. The assembhng of the states he re- 
fused, as he had previously done. No mention was 
made in this letter of the agreement which she had 
entered into with the Protestants and with the league, 
because he did not deem it ad\dsable at present abso- 
lutely to reject it, and he was still less disposed to 
acknowledge its vahdity. On the other hand, he 
ordered her to reinforce the army, to draw together 



2i8 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

new regiments from Germany, and to meet the refrac- 
tory with force. For the rest, he concluded, he relied 
upon the loyalty of the leading nobility, among whom 
he knew many who were sincere in their attachment 
both to their religion and their king. In the secret 
letter she was again enjoined to do all in her power to 
prevent the assembhng of the states ; but if the general 
voice should become irresistible, and she was com- 
pelled to yield, she was at least to manage so cau- 
tiously that the royal dignity should not suffer, and no 
one learn the king's consent to their assembly. 

While these consultations were held in Spain the 
Protestants in the Netherlands made the most exten- 
sive use of the privileges which had been compulsorily 
granted to them. The erection of churches wherever 
it was permitted was completed with incredible, rapid- 
ity; young and old, gentle and simple, assisted in 
carrying stones ; women sacrificed even their orna- 
ments in order to accelerate the work. The two relig- 
ious parties established in several towns consistories, 
and a church council of their own, the first move 
of the kind being made in Antwerp, and placed their 
form of worship on a well-regulated footing. It was 
also proposed to raise a common fund by subscription 
to meet any sudden emergency of the Protestant 
Church in general. In Antwerp a memorial was pre- 
sented by the Calvinists of that town to the Count of 
Hogstraten, in which they offered to pay three millions 
of dollars to secure the free exercise of their religion. 
Many copies of this writing were circulated in the 
Netherlands ; and in order to stimulate others, many 
had ostentatiously subscribed their names to large 
sums. Various interpretations of this extravagant 
offer were made by the enemies of the Keformers, and 
all had some appearance of reason. For instance, it 
was urged that under the pretext of collecting the 
requisite sum for fulfilling this engagement they hoped, 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 219 

without suspicion, to raise funds for military purposes ; 
for whether they should be called upon to contribute 
for or against^ they would, it was thought, be more 
ready to burden themselves with a view of preserv- 
ing peace than for an oppressive and devastating war. 
Others saw in this offer nothing more than a temporary 
stratagem of the Protestants by which they hoped to 
bind the court and keep it irresolute until they should 
have gained sufficient strength to confront it. Others 
again declared it to be a downright bravado in order to 
alarm the regent, and to raise the courage of their own 
party by the display of such rich resources. But what- 
ever was the true motive of this proposition, its origi- 
nators gained httle by it; the contributions flowed 
in scantily and slowly, and the court answered the 
proposal with silent contempt. The excesses, too, of 
the Iconoclasts, far from promoting the cause of the 
league and advancing the Protestants' interests, had 
done irreparable injury to both. The sight of their 
ruined churches, which, in the language of Viglius, 
resembled stables more than houses of God, enraged 
the Eoman Catholics, and above all the clergy. All of 
that religion, who had hitherto been members of the 
league, now forsook it, alleging that even if it had not 
intentionally excited and encouraged the excesses of 
the Iconoclasts, it had beyond question remotely led to 
them. The intolerance of the Calvinists who, wher- 
ever they were the ruling party, cruelly oppressed the 
Eoman Catholics, completely expelled the delusion in 
which the latter had long indulged, and they withdrew 
their support from a party from which, if they obtained 
the upper hand, their own religion had so much cause 
to fear. Thus the league lost many of its best mem- 
bers ; the friends and patrons, too, which it had hith- 
erto found amongst the well-disposed citizens now 
deserted it, and its character began perceptibly to 
decline. The severity with which some of its mem- 



2 20 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

bers had acted against the Iconoclasts in order to 
prove their good disposition toward the regent, and 
to remove the suspicion of any connection with the 
malcontents, had also injured them with the people 
who favoured the latter, and thus the league was in 
danger of ruining itself with both parties at the same 
time. 

The regent had no sooner become acquainted with 
this change in the public mind than she devised a plan 
by which she hoped gradually to dissolve the whole 
league, or at least to enfeeble it through internal 
dissensions. For this end she availed herself of the 
private letters which the king had addressed to some 
of the nobles, and enclosed to her with full liberty 
to use them at her discretion. These letters, which 
overflowed with kind expressions, were presented to 
those for whom they were intended, with an attempt 
at secrecy, which designedly miscarried, so that on 
each occasion some one or other of those who had 
received nothing of the sort got a hint of them. In 
order to spread suspicion the more widely numerous 
copies of the letters were circulated. This artifice 
attained its object. Many members of the league 
began to doubt the honesty of those to whom such 
brilliant promises were made; through fear of being 
deserted by their principal members and supporters, 
they eagerly accepted the conditions which were offered 
them by the regent, and evinced great anxiety for 
a speedy reconciliation with the court. The general 
rumour of the impending visit of the king, which the 
regent took care to have widely circulated, was also of 
great service to her in this matter; many who could 
not augur much good to themselves from the royal 
presence did not hesitate to accept a pardon, which, 
perhaps, for what they could tell, was offered them for 
the last time. Among those who thus received private 
letters were Egmont and Prince of Orange. Both had 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 221 

complained to the king of the evil reports with which 
designing persons in Spain had laboured to brand their 
names, and to throw suspicion on their motives and 
intentions ; Egmont, in particular, with the honest 
simplicity which was pecuhar to his character, had 
asked the monarch only to point out to him what 
he most desired, to determine the particular action by 
which his favour could be best obtained and zeal in his 
service evinced, and it should, he assured him, be done. 
The king in reply caused the president. Yon Tyssen- 
acque, to tell him that he could do nothing better to 
refute his traducers than to show perfect submission 
to the royal orders, which were so clearly and precisely 
drawn up, that no further exposition of them was 
required, nor any particular instruction. It was the 
sovereign's part to deUberate, to examine, and to de- 
cide; unconditionally to obey was the duty of the 
subject; the honour of the latter consisted in his 
obedience. It did not become a member to hold itself 
wiser than the head. He was assuredly to be blamed 
for not having done his utmost to curb the unruliness 
of his sectarians ; but it was even yet in his power to 
make up for past neghgence by at least maintaining 
peace and order until the actual arrival of the king. 
In thus punishing Count Egmont with reproofs like a 
disobedient child, the king treated him in accordance 
with what he knew of his character ; with his friend 
he found it necessary to call in the aid of artifice 
and deceit. Orange, too, in his letter, had alluded 
to the suspicions which the king entertained of his 
loyalty and attachment, but not, hke Egmont, in the 
vain hope of removing them ; for this he had long 
given up ; but in order to pass from these complaints 
to a request for permission to resign his offices. He 
had already frequently made this request to the regent, 
but had always received from her a refusal, accom- 
panied with the strongest assurance of her regard. The 



222 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

king also, to whom he now at last addressed a direct 
application, returned him the same answer, graced with 
similar strong assurances of his satisfaction and grat- 
itude. In particular he expressed the high satisfaction 
he entertained of his services, which he had lately 
rendered the crown in Antwerp, and lamented deeply 
that the private affairs of the prince (which the latter 
had made his chief plea for demanding his dismissal) 
should have fallen into such disorder ; but ended with 
the declaration that it was impossible for him to 
dispense with his valuable services at a crisis which 
demanded the increase, rather than diminution, of his 
good and honest servants. He had thought, he added, 
that the prince entertained a better opinion of him 
than to suppose him capable of giving credit to the 
idle talk of certain persons, who were friends neither to 
the prince nor to himself. But, at the same time, 
to give him a proof of his sincerity, he complained to 
him in confidence of his brother, the Count of Nassau, 
pretended to ask his advice in the matter, and finally 
expressed a wish to have the count removed for a 
period from the Netherlands. 

But Philip had here to do with a head which in 
cunning was superior to his own. The Prince of 
Orange had for a long time held watch over him and 
his privy council in Madrid and Segovia, through a 
host of spies, who reported to him everything of impor- 
tance that was transacted there. The court of this 
most secret of all despots had become accessible to his 
intriguing spirit and his money; in this manner he 
had gained possession of several autograph letters of 
the regent, which she had secretly written to Madrid, 
and had caused copies to be circulated in triumph in 
Brussels, and in a measure under her own eyes, inso- 
much that she saw with astonishment in everybody's 
hands what she thought was preserved with so much 
care, and entreated the king for the future to destroy 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 223 

her despatches immediately they were read. William's 
\dgilance did not confine itself simply to the court of 
Spain ; he had spies in France, and even at more dis- 
tant courts. He is also charged with not being over- 
scrupulous as to the means by which he acquii^ed his 
intelligence. But the most important disclosure was 
made by an intercepted letter of the Spanish ambas- 
sador in France, Francis Yon Alava, to the duchess, 
in which the former descanted on the fair opportunity 
which was now afforded to the kins;, throuoh the oiiilt 
of the Xetherlandish people, of estabhshing an arbitrary 
power in that country. He therefore advised her to 
deceive the nobles by the very arts which they had 
hitherto employed against herself, and to secure them 
through smooth words and an obhging beha\dour. The 
king, he concluded, who knew the nobles to be the 
hidden springs of all the previous troubles, would take 
good care to lay hands upon them at the first favour- 
able opportunity, as well as the two whom he had 
already in Spain; and did not mean to let them go 
again, having sworn to make an example in them 
which should horrify the whole of Christendom, even 
if it should cost him his hereditary dominions. This 
piece of evil news was strongly corroborated by the 
letters which Bergen and Montigny wrote from Spain, 
and in which they bitterly complained of the con- 
temptuous behaviour of the grandees and the altered 
deportment of the monarch toward them ; and the 
Prince of Orange was now fully sensible what he had 
to expect from the fair promises of the king. 

The letter of the minister, Alava, together with some 
others fi'om Spain, which gave a circumstantial account 
of the approaching warhke visit of the king, and of 
his evil intentions against the nobles, was laid by the 
prince before his brother. Count Louis of Nassau, 
Counts Egmont, Horn, and Hogstraten, at a meeting 
at Dendermonde in Flanders, whither these five knights 



224 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

had repaired to confer on the measures necessary for 
their security. Count Louis, who listened only to his 
feelings of indignation, foolhardily maintained that 
they ought, without loss of time, to take up arms and 
seize some strongholds. That they ought at all risks 
to prevent the king's armed entrance into the provinces. 
That they should endeavour to prevail on the Swiss, 
the Protestant princes of Germany, and the Huguenots 
to arm and obstruct his passage through their terri- 
tories; and if, notwithstanding, he should force his 
way through these impediments, that the Flemings 
should meet him with an army on the frontiers. He 
would take upon himself to negotiate a defensive 
alliance in France, in Switzerland, and in Germany, 
and to raise in the latter empire four thousand horse, 
together with a proportionate body of infantry. Pre- 
texts would not be wanting for collecting the requisite 
supplies of money, and the merchants of the reformed 
sect would, he felt assured, not fail them. But William, 
more cautious and more wise, declared himself against 
this proposal, which, in the execution, would be exposed 
to numberless difficulties, and had as yet nothing to 
justify it. The Inquisition, he represented, was in fact 
abolished, the edicts were nearly sunk into oblivion, 
and a fair degree of religious liberty accorded. Hitherto, 
therefore, there existed no valid or adequate excuse for 
adopting this hostile method ; he did not doubt, how- 
ever, that one would be presented to them before long, 
and in good time for preparation. His own opinion 
consequently was that they should await this oppor- 
tunity with patience, and in the meanwhile still keep 
a watchful eye upon everything, and contrive to give 
the people a hint of the threatened danger, that they 
might be ready to act if circumstances should call for 
their cooperation. If all present had assented to the 
opinion of the Prince of Orange, there is no doubt but 
so powerful a league, formidable both by the influence 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 225 

and the high character of its members, would have 
opposed obstacles to the designs of the king which 
would have compelled him to abandon them entirely. 
But the determination of the assembled knights was 
much shaken by the declaration with which Count 
Egmont surprised them. " Eather," said he, " may all 
that is evil befall me than that I should tempt fortune 
so rashly. The idle talk of the Spaniard, Alava, does 
not move me; how should such a person be able to 
read the mind of a sovereign so reserved as Phihp, 
and to decipher his secrets ? The intelhgence which 
Montigny gives us goes to prove nothing more than 
that the king has a very doubtful opinion of our zeal 
for his service, and beheves he has cause to distrust 
our loyalty ; and for this I for my part must confess 
that we have given him only too much cause. And it 
is my serious purpose, by redoubling my zeal, to regain 
his good opinion, and by my future behaviour to 
remove, if possible, the distrust which my actions have 
hitherto excited. How could I tear myseK from the 
arms of my numerous and dependent family to wander 
as an exile at foreign courts, a burden to every one 
who received me, the slave of every one who con- 
descended to assist me, a servant of foreigners, in order 
to escape a slight degree of constraint at home ? Never 
can the monarch act unkindly toward a servant who 
was once beloved and dear to him, and who has estab- 
lished a well-grounded claim to his gratitude. Never 
shall I be persuaded that he who has expressed such 
favourable, such gracious sentiments toward his Bel- 
gian subjects, and with his own mouth gave me such 
emphatic, such solemn assurances, can be now devising, 
as it is pretended, such tyrannical schemes against 
them. If we do but restore to the country its former 
repose, chastise the rebels, and reestablish the Roman 
Cathohc form of worship wherever it has been violently 
suppressed, then, believe me, we shall hear no more of 



226 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

Spanish troops. This is the course to which I now 
invite you all by my counsel and my example, and to 
which also most of our brethren already incline. I, 
for my part, fear nothing from the anger of the king. 
My conscience acquits me. I trust my fate and for- 
tunes to his justice and clemency." In vain did 
Nassau, Horn, and Orange labour to shake his reso- 
lution, and to open his eyes to the near and inevitable 
danger. Egmont was really attached to the king ; the 
royal favours, and the condescension with which they 
were conferred, were still fresh in his remembrance. 
The attentions with which the monarch had distin- 
guished him above all his friends had not failed of 
their effect. It was more from false shame than from 
party spirit that he had defended the cause of his 
countrymen against him ; more from temperament and 
natural kindness of heart than from tried principles 
that he had opposed the severe measures of the govern- 
ment. The love of the nation, which worshipped him 
as its idol, carried him away. Too vain to renounce a 
title which sounded so agreeable, he had been com- 
pelled to do something to deserve it ; but a single look 
at his family, a harsher designation applied to his 
conduct, a dangerous inference drawn from it, the mere 
sound of crime, terrified him from his self-delusion, and 
scared him back in haste and alarm to his duty. 

Orange's whole plan was frustrated by Egmont's 
withdrawal. The latter possessed the hearts of the 
people and the confidence of the army, without which 
it was utterly impossible to undertake anything effect- 
ive. The rest had reckoned with so much certainty 
upon him that his unexpected defection rendered the 
whole meeting nugatory. They therefore separated 
without coming to a determination. All who had met 
in Dendermonde were expected in the Council of State 
in Brussels ; but Egmont alone repaired thither. The 
regent wished to sift him on the subject of this confer- 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 227 

ence, but she could extract nothing further from him 
than the production of the letter of Alava, of which he 
had purposely taken a copy, and which, with the bitter- 
est reproofs, he laid before her. At first she changed 
colour at sight of it, but quickly recovering herself, she 
boldly declared that it was a forgery. " How can this 
letter," she said, " really come from Alava, when I miss 
none ? And would he who pretends to have intercepted 
it have spared the other letters ? Nay, how can it be 
true, when not a single packet has miscarried, nor a 
single despatch failed to come to hand ? How, too, can 
it be thought likely that the king would have made 
Alava master of a secret which he has not com- 
municated even to me?" 

CIVIL WAR. ' 

(1566.) Meanwhile the regent hastened to take 
advantage of the schism amongst the nobles to com- 
plete the ruin of the league, which was already totter- 
ing under the weight of internal dissensions. Without 
loss of time she drew from Germany the troops which 
Duke Eric of Brunswick was holding in readiness, aug- 
mented the cavalry, and raised five regiments of Wal- 
loons, the command of which she gave to Counts 
Mansfeld, Megen, Arenberg, and others. To the 
prince, likewise, she felt it necessary to confide troops, 
both because she did not wish, by withholding them 
pointedly, to insult him, and also because the provinces 
of which he was governor were in urgent need of them ; 
but she took the precaution of joining with him a Colo- 
nel Waldenfinger, who should watch all his steps and 
thwart his measures if they appeared dangerous. To 
Count Egmont the clergy in Flanders paid a contribu- 
tion of forty thousand gold florins for the maintenance 
of fifteen hundred men, whom he distributed among 
the places where danger was most apprehended. Every 



2 28 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

governor was ordered to increase his military force, and 
to provide himself with ammunition. These energetic 
preparations, which were making in all places, left no 
doubt as to the measures which the regent would adopt 
in future. Conscious of her superior force, and certain 
of this important support, she now ventured to change 
her tone, and to employ quite another language with 
the rebels. She began to put the most arbitrary inter- 
pretation on the concessions which, through fear and 
necessity, she had made to the Protestants, and to 
restrict all the liberties which she had tacitly granted 
them to the mere permission of their preaching. All 
other religious exercises and rites, which yet appeared 
to be involved in the former privilege, were by new 
edicts expressly forbidden, and all offenders in such 
matters were to be proceeded against as traitors. The 
Protestants were permitted to think differently from 
the ruling church upon the sacrament, but to receive it 
differently was a crime ; baptism, marriage, burial, after 
their fashion, were prohibited under pain of death. It 
was a cruel mockery to allow them their religion, and 
forbid the exercise of it ; but this mean artifice of the 
regent to escape from the obligation of her pledged 
word was worthy of the pusillanimity with which she 
had submitted to its being extorted from her. She took 
advantage of the most trifling innovations and the small- 
est excesses to interrupt the preachings; and some of 
the preachers, under the charge of having performed 
their office in places not appointed to them, were 
brought to trial, condemned, and executed. On more 
than one occasion the regent publicly declared that the 
confederates had taken unfair advantage of her fears 
and that she did not feel herself bound by an engage- 
ment which had been extorted from her by threats. 

Of all the Belgian towns which had participated in 
the insurrection of the Iconoclasts none had caused the 
regent so much alarm as the town of Valenciennes, in 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 229 

Hainault. In no other was the party of the Calvinists 
so powerful, and the spirit of rebellion, for which 
the province of Hainault had always made itself con- 
spicuous, seemed to dwell here as in its native place. 
The propinquity of France, to which, as well by lan- 
guage as by manners, this town appeared to belong, 
rather than to the ]N"etherlands, had from the first led 
to its being governed with great mildness and forbear- 
ance, which, however, only taught it to feel its own 
importance. At the last outbreak of the church- 
desecrators it had been on the point of surrendering to 
the Huguenots, with whom it maintained the closest 
understanding. The slightest excitement might renew 
this danger. On this account Valenciennes was the 
first town to which the regent proposed, as soon as 
should be in her power, to send a strong garrison. 
Philip of Noircarmes, Baron of St. Aldegonde, Gov- 
ernor of Hainault in the place of the absent Marquis 
of Bergen, had received this charge, and now appeared 
at the head of an army before its walls. Deputies 
came to meet him on the part of the magistrate from 
the town, to petition against the garrison, because the 
Protestant citizens, who were the superior number, 
had declared against it. Noircarmes acquainted them 
with the will of the regent, and gave them the choice 
between the garrison or a siege. He assured them that 
not more than four squadrons of horse and six com- 
panies of foot should be imposed upon the town ; and 
for this he would give them his son as a hostage. 
These terms were laid before the magistrate, who, for 
his part, was much inclined to accept them. But Pere- 
grine Le Grange, the preacher, and the idol of the 
populace, to whom it was of vital importance to pre- 
vent a submission of which he would inevitably become 
the victim, appeared at the head of his followers, and 
by his powerful eloquence excited the people to reject 
the conditions. When their answer was brought to 



230 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

Noircarmes, contrary to all law of nations, he caused 
the messengers to be placed in irons, and carried them 
away with him as prisoners ; he was, however, by ex- 
press command of the regent, compelled to set them 
free again. The regent, instructed by secret orders 
from Madrid to exercise as much forbearance as pos- 
sible, caused the town to be repeatedly summoned to 
receive the garrison ; when, however, it obstinately per- 
sisted in its refusal, it was declared by public edict to 
be in rebellion, and Noircarmes was authorised to com- 
mence the siege in form. The other provinces were 
forbidden to assist this rebellious town with advice, 
money, or arms. All the property contained in it was 
confiscated. In order to let it see the war before it 
began in earnest, and to give it time for rational reflec- 
tion, Noircarmes drew together troops from all Hainault 
and Cambray (1566), took possession of St. Amant, and 
placed garrisons in all adjacent places. 

The line of conduct adopted toward Valenciennes 
allowed the other towns which were similarly situated 
to infer the fate which was intended for them also, and 
at once put the whole league in motion. An army of 
the Gueux, between three thousand and four thousand 
strong, which was hastily collected from the rabble of 
fugitives, and the remaining bands of the Iconoclasts, 
appeared in the territories of Tournay and Lille, in 
order to secure these two towns, and to annoy the 
enemy at Valenciennes. The commandant of Lille was 
fortunate enough to maintain that place by routing 
a detachment of this army, which, in concert with the 
Protestant inhabitants, had made an attempt to get 
possession of it. At the same time the army of the 
Gueux, which was uselessly wasting its time at Lan- 
noy, was surprised by Noircarmes and almost entirely 
annihilated. The few who with desperate courage 
forced their way through the enemy, threw themselves 
into the town of Tournay, which was immediately sum- 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 231 

moned by the victor to open its gates and admit a gar- 
rison. Its prompt obedience obtained for it a milder 
fate. Noircarmes contented himself with abohshing 
the Protestant consistory, banishing the preachers, pun- 
ishing the leaders of the rebels, and again reestabhsh- 
ing the Eoman Cathohc worship, which he found 
almost entirely suppressed. After giving it a steadfast 
Eoman Cathohc as governor, and leaving in it a suffi- 
cient garrison, he again returned with his victorious 
army to Valenciennes to press the siege. 

This town, confident in its strength, actively pre- 
pared for defence, firmly resolved to allow things to 
come to extremes before it surrendered. The inhabit- 
ants had not neglected to furnish themselves with 
ammunition and provisions for a long siege; all who 
could carry arms (the very artisans not excepted), be- 
came soldiers ; the houses before the town, and espe- 
cially the cloisters, were pulled down, that the besiegers 
might not avail themselves of them to cover their 
attack. The few adherents of the crown, awed by the 
multitude, were silent ; no Eoman Cathohc ventured to 
stir himself. Anarchy and rebelhon had taken the 
place of good order, and the fanaticism of a foolhardy 
priest gave laws instead of the legal dispensers of jus- 
tice. The male population was numerous, their cour- 
age confirmed by despair, their confidence unbounded 
that the siege would be raised, while their hatred 
against the Eoman Cathohc rehgion was excited to the 
highest pitch. Many had no mercy to expect; all 
abhorred the general thraldom of an imperious garri- 
son. Xoircarmes, whose army had become formidable 
through the reinforcements which streamed to it fi'om 
all quarters, and was abundantly furnished with all the 
requisites for a long blockade, once more attempted to 
prevail on the town by gentle means, but in vain. At 
last he caused the trenches to be opened and prepared 
to invest the place. 



232 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

In the meanwhile the position of the Protestants had 
grown as much worse as that of the regent had im- 
proved. The league of the nobles had gradually melted 
away to a third of its original number. Some of its 
most important defenders, Count Egmont, for instance, 
had gone over to the king ; the pecuniary contributions 
which had been so confidently reckoned upon came in 
but slowly and scantily; the zeal of the party began 
perceptibly to cool, and the close of the fine season 
made it necessary to discontinue the public preachings, 
which, up to this time, had been continued. These 
and other reasons combined induced the declining 
party to moderate its demands, and to try every legal 
expedient before it proceeded to extremities. In a 
general synod of the Protestants, which was held for 
this object in Antwerp, and which was also attended 
by some of the confederates, it was resolved to send 
deputies to the regent to remonstrate with her upon 
this breach of faith, and to remind her of her compact. 
Brederode undertook this office, but was obhged to 
submit to a harsh and disgraceful rebuff, and was shut 
out of Brussels. He had now recourse to a written 
memorial, in which, in the name of the whole league, 
he complained that the duchess had, by violating her 
word, falsified in sight of all the Protestants the 
security given by the league, in rehance on which all 
of them had laid down their arms ; that by her insin- 
cerity she had undone all the good which the con- 
federates had laboured to effect ; that she had sought 
to degrade the league in the eyes of the people, had 
excited discord among its members, and had even 
caused many of them to be persecuted as criminals. 
He called upon her to recall her late ordinances, which 
deprived the Protestants of the free exercise of their 
religion, but above all to raise the siege of Valenciennes, 
to disband the troops newly enlisted, and ended by 
assuring her that on these conditions and these alone 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 233 

the league would be responsible for the general tran- 
quillity. 

To this the regent replied in a tone very different 
from her previous moderation. "Who these confeder- 
ates are who address me in this memorial is, indeed, a 
mystery to me. The confederates with whom I had 
formerly to do, for ought I know to the contrary, have 
dispersed. All at least cannot participate in this state- 
ment of grievances, for I myself know of many, who, 
satisfied in all their demands, have returned to their 
duty. But still, whoever he may be, who without 
authority and right, and without name addresses me, 
he has at least given a very false interpretation to my 
word if he asserts that I guaranteed to the Protestants 
complete religious liberty. No one can be ignorant 
how reluctantly I was induced to permit the preach- 
ings in the places where they had sprung up unauthor- 
ised, and this surely cannot be counted for a concession 
of freedom in religion. Is it likely that I should have 
entertained the idea of protecting these illegal con- 
sistories, of tolerating this state within a state ? Could 
I forget myself so far as to grant the sanction of law 
to an objectionable sect ; to overturn all order in the 
Church and in the state, and abominably to blaspheme 
my holy religion ? Look to him who has given you 
such permission, but you must not argue with me. 
You accuse me of having violated the agreement which 
gave you impunity and security. The past I am will- 
ing to look over, but not what may be done in future. 
No advantage was to be taken of you on account of the 
petition of last April, and to the best of my knowledge 
nothing of the kind has as yet been done ; but who- 
ever again offends in the same way against the majesty 
of the king must be ready to bear the consequences of 
his crime. In fine, how can you presume to remind 
me of an agreement which you have been the first to 
break ? At whose instigation were the churches 



234 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

plundered, the images of the saints thrown down, and 
the towns hurried into rebeUion ? Who formed alli- 
ances with foreign powers, set on foot illegal enlist- 
ments, and collected unlawful taxes from the subjects 
of the king ? These are the reasons which have im- 
pelled me to draw together my troops, and to increase 
the severity of the edicts. Whoever now asks me to 
lay down my arms cannot mean well to his country or 
his king, and if ye value your own lives, look to it that 
your own actions acquit you, instead of judging mine." 
All the hopes which the confederates might have 
entertained of an amicable adjustment sank with this 
high-toned declaration. Without being confident of 
possessing powerful support, the regent would not, they 
argued, employ such language. An army was in the 
field, the enemy was before Valenciennes, the members 
who were the heart of the league had abandoned 
it, and the regent required unconditional submission. 
Their cause was now so bad that open resistance could 
not make it worse. If they gave themselves up 
defenceless into ^the hands of their exasperated sover- 
eign their fate was certain ; an appeal to arms could at 
least make it a matter of doubt ; they, therefore, chose 
the latter, and began seriously to take steps for their 
defence. In order to ensure the assistance of the Ger- 
man Protestants, Louis of Nassau attempted to per- 
suade the towns of Amsterdam, Antwerp, Tournay, 
and Valenciennes to adopt the confession of Augsburg, 
and in this manner to seal their alliance with a relig- 
ious union. But the proposition was not successful, 
because the hatred of the Calvinists to the Lutherans 
exceeded, if possible, that which they bore popery. 
Nassau also began in earnest to negotiate for supplies 
from France, the Palatinate, and Saxony. The Count 
of Bergen fortified his castle ; Brederode threw himself 
with a small force into his strong town of Viane on 
the Leek, over which he claimed the rights of sover- 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 235 

eignty, and which he hastily placed in a state of 
defence, and there awaited a reinforcement from the 
league, and the issue of Nassau's negotiations. The 
flag of war was now unfurled, everywhere the drum 
was heard to beat ; in all parts troops were seen on 
the march, contributions collected, and soldiers enlisted. 
The agents of each party often met in the same place, 
and hardly had the collectors and recruiting officers of 
the regent quitted a town when it had to endure a 
similar visit from the agents of the league. 

From Valenciennes the regent directed her attention 
to Herzogenbusch, where the Iconoclasts had lately 
committed fresh excesses, and the party of the Protes- 
tants had gained a great accession of strength. In 
order to prevail on the citizens peaceably to receive a 
garrison, she sent thither, as ambassador, the Chancellor 
Scheiff, from Brabant, with Counsellor Merode of Peter- 
sheim, whom she appointed governor of the town ; they 
were instructed to secure the place by judicious means, 
and to exact from the citizens a new oath of allegiance. 
At the same time the Count of Megen, who was in the 
neighbourhood with a body of troops, was ordered to 
support the two envoys in effecting their commission, 
and to afford the means of throwing in a garrison 
immediately. But Brederode, who obtained informa- 
tion of these movements in Viane, had already sent 
thither one of his creatures, a certain Anton von Bom- 
berg, a hot Calvinist, but also a brave soldier, in order 
to raise the courage of his party, and to frustrate the 
designs of the regent. This Bomberg succeeded in 
getting possession of the letters which the chancellor 
brought with him from the duchess, and contrived to 
substitute in their place counterfeit ones, which by 
their harsh and imperious language were calculated to 
exasperate the minds of the citizens. At the same 
time he attempted to throw suspicion on both the 
ambassadors of the duchess as having evil designs upon 



236 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

the town. In this he succeeded so well with the mob 
that in their mad fury they even laid hands on the 
ambassadors and placed them in confinement. He 
himself, at the head of eight thousand men, who had 
adopted him as their leader, advanced against the 
Count of Megen, who was moving in order of battle, 
and gave him so warm a reception, with some heavy 
artillery, that he was compelled to retire without ac- 
complishing his object. The regent now sent an officer 
of justice to demand the release of her ambassadors, 
and in case of refusal to threaten the place with siege ; 
but Bomberg with his party surrounded the town hall 
and forced the magistrate to deliver to him the key of 
the town. The messenger of the regent was ridiculed 
and dismissed, and an answer sent through him that the 
treatment of the prisoners would depend upon Brede- 
rode's orders. The herald, who was remaining outside 
before the town, now appeared to declare war against 
her, which, however, the chancellor prevented. 

After his futile attempt on Herzogenbusch the Count 
of Megen threw himself into Utrecht in order to pre- 
vent the execution of a design which Count Brederode 
had formed against that town. As it had suffered 
much from the army of the confederates, which was 
encamped in its immediate neighbourhood, near Viane, 
it received Megen with open arms as its protector, 
and conformed to all the alterations which he made 
in the religious worship. Upon this he immediately 
caused a redoubt to be thrown up on the bank of the 
Leek, which would command Yiane. Brederode, not 
disposed to await his attack, quitted that rendezvous 
with the best part of his army and hastened to 
Amsterdam. 

However unprofitably the Prince of Orange appeared 
to be losing his time in Antwerp during these opera- 
tions, he was, nevertheless, busily employed. At his 
instigation the league had commenced recruiting, and 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 237 

Brederode had fortified his castles, for which purpose 
he himself presented him with three cannons which he 
had had cast at Utrecht. His eye watched all the 
movements of the court, and he kept the league warned 
of the towns which were next menaced with attack. 
But his chief object appeared to be to get possession 
of the principal places in the districts under his own 
government, to which end he with all his power 
secretly assisted Brederode's plans against Utrecht and 
Amsterdam. The most important place was the Island 
of Walcheren, where the king was expected to land ; 
and he now planned a scheme for the surprise of this 
place, the conduct of which was entrusted to one of 
the confederate nobles, an intimate friend of the Prince 
of Orange, John of Marnix, Baron of Thoulouse, and 
brother of Philip of Aldegonde. 

(1567.) Thoulouse maintained a secret understand- 
ing with the late mayor of Middelburg, Peter Haak, by 
which he expected to gain an opportunity of throwing 
a garrison into Middelburg and Flushing. The recruit- 
ing, however, for this undertaking, which was set on 
foot in Antwerp, could not be carried on so quietly as 
not to attract the notice of the magistrate. In order 
therefore, to lull the suspicions of the latter, and at the 
same time to promote the success of the scheme, the 
prince caused the herald by public proclamation to 
order all foreign soldiers and strangers who were in the 
service of the state, or employed in other business, 
forthwith to quit the town. He might, say his adver- 
saries, by closing the gates have easily made himself 
master of all these suspected recruits ; but he expelled 
them from the town in order to drive them the more 
quickly to the place of their destination. They imme- 
diately embarked on the Scheldt, and sailed down to 
Kammekens ; as, however, a market- vessel of Antwerp, 
which ran into Flushing a little before them, had given 
warning of their design, they were forbidden to enter 



238 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

the port. They found the same difficulty at Arnemui- 
den, near Middelburg, although the Protestants in that 
place exerted themselves to raise an insurrection in 
their favour. Thoulouse, therefore, without having 
accomplished anything, put about his ships and sailed 
back down the Scheldt as far as Osterweel, a quarter 
of a mile from Antwerp, where he disembarked his 
people and encamped on the shore, with the hope of 
getting men from Antwerp, and also in order to revive 
by his presence the courage of his party, which had 
been cast down by the proceedings of the magistrate. 
By the aid of the Calvinistic clergy, who recruited for 
him, his little army increased daily, so that at last he 
began to be formidable to the Antwerpians, whose 
whole territory he laid waste. The magistrate was for 
attacking him here with the mihtia, which, however, 
the Prince of Orange successfully opposed by the pre- 
text that it would not be prudent to strip the town of 
soldiers. 

Meanwhile the regent had hastily brought together 
a small army under the command of Philip of Launoy, 
which moved from Brussels to Antwerp by forced 
marches. At the same time Count Megen managed to 
keep the army of the Gueux shut up and employed at 
Viane, so that it could neither hear of these movements 
nor hasten to the assistance of its confederates. Launoy, 
on his arrival, attacked by surprise the dispersed crowds, 
who, little expecting an enemy, had gone out to 
plunder, and destroyed them in one terrible carnage. 
Thoulouse threw himself with the small remnant of 
his troops into a country house, which had served him 
as his headquarters, and for a long time defended himself 
with the courage of despair, until Launoy, finding it 
impossible to dislodge him, set fire to the house. The 
few who escaped the flames fell on the swords of the 
enemy or were drowned in the Scheldt. Thoulouse 
himself preferred to perish in the flames rather than to 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 239 

fall into the hands of the enemy. This victory, which 
swept off more than a thousand of the enemy, was 
purchased by the conqueror cheaply enough, for he did 
not lose more than two men. Three hundred of the 
leaguers who surrendered were cut dovm without mercy 
on the spot, as a sally from Antwerp was momentarily 
dreaded. 

Before the battle actually commenced no anticipation 
of such an event had been entertained at Antwerp. 
The Prince of Orange, who had got early information 
of it, had taken the precaution the day before of caus- 
ing the bridge which unites the town with Osterweel 
to be destroyed, in order, as he gave out, to prevent the 
CahTnists within the town going out to join the army 
of Thoulouse. A more probable motive seems to have 
been a fear lest the Cathohcs should attack the army 
of the Gueux general in the rear, or lest Launoy should 
prove victorious, and try to force his way into the town. 
On the same pretext the gates of the city were also 
shut by his orders, and the inhabitants, who did not 
comprehend the meaning of all these movements, fluc- 
tuated between curiosity and alarm, until the sound of 
artillery from Osterweel announced to them what there 
was going on. In clamorous crowds they all ran to 
the walls and ramparts, from which, as the wind drove 
the smoke from the contending armies, they commanded 
a full \'iew of the whole battle. Both armies were so 
near to the town that they could discern their banners, 
and clearly distinguish the voices of the ^^ctors and 
the vanquished. More terrible even than the battle 
itself was the spectacle which this town now presented. 
Each of the conflicting armies had its friends and its 
enemies on the wall. All that went on in the plain 
roused on the ramparts exultation or dismay; on the 
issue of the conflict the fate of each spectator seemed 
to depend. Every movement on the field could be read 
in the faces of the townsmen ; defeat and triumph, the 



240 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

terror of the conquered, and the fury of the conqueror. 
Here a painful but idle wish to support those who are 
giving way, to rally those who fly ; there an equally 
futile desire to overtake them, to slay them, to extir- 
pate them. Now the Gueux fly, and ten thousand 
men rejoice ; Thoulouse's last place and refuge is in 
flames, and the hopes of twenty thousand citizens are 
consumed with him. 

But the first bewilderment of alarm soon gave place 
to a frantic desire of revenge. Shrieking aloud, wring- 
ing her hands and with dishevelled hair, the widow of 
the slain general rushed amidst the crowds to implore 
their pity and help. Excited by their favourite 
preacher, Hermann, the Calvinists fly to arms, deter- 
mined to avenge their brethren, or to perish with 
them ; without reflection, without plan or leader, 
guided by nothing but their anguish, their delirium, 
they rush to the Eed Gate of the city which leads to 
the field of battle ; but there is no egress, the gate is 
shut and the foremost of the crowd recoil on those 
that follow. Thousands and thousands collect to- 
gether, a dreadful rush is made to the Meer Bridge. 
We are betrayed ! we are prisoners ! is the general cry. 
Destruction to the papists, death to him who has 
betrayed us ! — a sullen murmur, portentous of a 
revolt, runs through the multitude. They begin to 
suspect that all that has taken place has been set 
on foot by the Eoman Catholics to destroy the Calvin- 
ists. They had slain their defenders, and they would 
now fall upon the defenceless. With fatal speed this 
suspicion spreads through the whole of Antwerp. 
Now they can, they think, understand the past, and they 
fear something still worse in the background ; a fright- 
ful distrust gains possession of every mind. Each 
party dreads the other; every one sees an enemy in 
his neighbour; the mystery deepens the alarm and 
horror; a fearful condition for a populous town, in 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLAxNDS 241 

■whicli every accidental concourse instantly becomes 
tumult, every rumour started amongst them becomes 
a fact, every small spark a blazing flame, and by the 
force of numbers and collision all passions are furiously 
inflamed. All who bore the name of Calvinists were 
roused by this report. Fifteen thousand of them take 
possession of the Meer Bridge, and plant heavy artil- 
lery upon it, which they had taken by force from 
the arsenal; the same thing also happens at another 
bridge ; their number makes them formidable, the town 
is in their hands ; to escape an imaginary danger they 
bring all Antwerp to the brink of ruin. 

Immediately on the commencement of the tumult 
the Prince of Orange hastened to the Meer Bridge, 
where, boldly forcing his way through the raging 
crowd, he commanded peace and entreated to be heard. 
At the other bridge Count Hogstraten, accompanied 
by the Burgomaster Strahlen, made the same attempt ; 
but not possessing a sufficient share either of eloquence 
or of popularity to command attention, he referred the 
tumultuous crowd to the prince, around whom all 
Antwerp now furiously thronged. The gate, he en- 
deavoured to explain to them, was shut simply to keep 
off the victor, whoever he might be, from the city, 
which would otherwise become the prey of an infuri- 
ated soldiery. In vain ! the frantic people would not 
listen, and one more daring than the rest presented 
his musket at him, calling him a traitor. With 
tumultuous shouts they demanded the key of the 
Red Gate, which he was ultimately forced to deliver 
into the hands of the preacher Hermann. But, he 
added with happy presence of mind, they must take 
heed what they were doing ; in the suburbs six hun- 
dred of the enemy's horse were waiting to receive 
them. This invention, suggested by the emergency, 
was not so far removed from the truth as its author 
perhaps imagined; for no sooner had the victorious 



2 42 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

general perceived the commotion in Antwerp than he 
caused his whole cavalry to mount in the hope of be- 
ing able, under favour of the disturbance, to break 
into 'ihe town. " I, at least," continued the Prince of 
Orange, "shall secure my own safety in time, and he 
who follows my example will save himself much future 
regret." These words opportunely spoken and immedi- 
ately acted upon had their effect. Those who stood 
nearest followed him, and were again followed by the 
next, so that at last the few who had already hastened 
out of the city when they saw no one coming after them 
lost the desire of coping alone with the six hundred 
horse. All accordingly returned to the Meer Bridge, 
where they posted watches and videttes, and the 
night was passed tumultuously under arms. 

The town of Antwerp now was threatened with fear- 
ful bloodshed and pillage. In this pressing emergency 
Orange assembled an extraordinary senate, to which 
were summoned all the best-disposed citizens of the 
four nations. If they wished, said he, to repress the 
violence of the Calvinists, they must oppose them with 
an army strong enough and prepared to meet them. 
It was therefore resolved to arm with speed the 
Eoman Catholic inhabitants of the town, whether 
natives, Itahans, or Spaniards, and, if possible, to in- 
duce the Lutherans also to join them. The haughti- 
ness of the Calvinists, who, proud of their wealth and 
confident in their numbers, treated every other rehgious 
party with contempt, had long made the Lutherans 
their enemies, and the mutual exasperation of these 
two Protestant churches was even more implacable 
than their common hatred of the dominant church. 
This jealousy the magistrate had turned to advantage, 
by making use of one party to curb the other, and had 
thus contrived to keep the Calvinists in check, who, 
from their numbers and insolence, were most to be 
feared. With this view, he had tacitly taken into 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 243 

his protection the Lutherans, as the weaker and more 
peaceable party, having moreover invited for them, 
from Germany, spiritual teachers, who, by controversial 
sermons, might keep up the mutual hatred of the two 
bodies. He encouraged the Lutherans in the vain idea 
that the king thought more favourably of their relig- 
ious creed than that of the Calvinists, and exhorted 
them to be careful how they damaged their good cause 
by any understanding with the latter. It was not, 
therefore, difficult to bring about, for the moment, a 
union with the Eoman Catholics and the Lutherans, 
as its object was to keep down their detested rivals. 
At dawn of day an army was opposed to the Calvin- 
ists which was far superior in force to their own. At 
the head of this army, the eloquence of Orange had far 
greater effect, and found far more attention than on 
the preceding evening, unbacked by such strong 
persuasion. The Calvinists, though in possession of 
arms and artillery, yet, alarmed at the superior 
numbers arrayed against them, were the first to send 
envoys, and to treat for an amicable adjustment of 
differences, which, by the tact and good temper of the 
Prince of Orange, he concluded to the satisfaction of 
all parties. On the proclamation of this treaty the 
Spaniards and Italians immediately laid down their 
arms. They were followed by the Calvinists, and 
these again by the Roman Catholics; last of all the 
Lutherans disarmed. 

Two days and two nights Antwerp had continued 
in this alarming state. During the tumult the Eoman 
Cathohcs had succeeded in placing barrels of gunpow- 
der under the Meer Bridge, and threatened to blow 
into the air the whole army of the Calvinists, who had 
done the same in other places to destroy their adver- 
saries. The destruction of the town hung on the 
issue of a moment, and nothing but the prince's pres- 
ence of mind saved it. 



2 44 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

Noircarmes, with his army of Walloons, still lay- 
before Valenciennes, which, in firm reliance on being 
relieved by the Gueux, obstinately refused to listen to 
all the representations of the regent, and rejected 
every idea of surrender. An order of the court had 
expressly forbidden the royalist general to press the 
siege until he should receive reinforcements from 
Germany. Whether from forbearance or fear, the 
king regarded with abhorrence the violent measure of 
storming the place, as necessarily involving the inno- 
cent in the fate of the guilty, and exposing the loyal 
subject to the same ill treatment as the rebel. As, how- 
ever, the confidence of the besieged augmented daily, 
and, emboldened by the inactivity of the besiegers, they 
annoyed him by frequent sallies, and after burning the 
cloisters before the town, retired with the plunder — 
as the time uselessly lost before this town was put to 
good use by the rebels and their allies, Noircarmes 
besought the duchess to obtain immediate permission 
from the king to take it by storm. The answer arrived 
more quickly than Phihp was ever before wont to 
reply. As yet they must be content, simply to make 
the necessary preparations, and then to wait awhile to 
allow terror to have its effect ; but if upon this they 
did not appear ready to capitulate, the storming might 
take place, but, at the same time, with the greatest 
possible regard for the lives of the inhabitants. Be- 
fore the regent allowed Noircarmes to proceed to this 
extremity she empowered Count Egmont, with the 
Duke Aerschot, to treat once more with the rebels 
amicably. Both conferred with the deputies of the 
town, and omitted no argument calculated to dispel 
their delusion. They acquainted them with the de- 
feat of Thoulouse, their sole support, and with the 
fact that the Count of Megen had cut off the army 
of the Gueux from the town, and assured them that if 
they had held out so long they owed it entirely to the 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 245 

king's forbearance. They offered them full pardon 
for the past ; every one was to be free to prove his 
innocence before whatever tribunal he should choose ; 
such as did not wish to avail themselves of this privi- 
lege were to be allowed fourteen days to quit the town 
with all their effects. Nothing was required of the 
townspeople but the admission of the garrison. To 
give time to deliberate on these terms an armistice of 
three days was granted. When the deputies returned 
they found their fellow citizens less disposed than ever 
to an accommodation, reports of new levies by the Gueux 
having, in the meantime, gained currency. Thoulouse, 
it was pretended, had conquered, and was advancing 
with a powerful army to relieve the place. Their con- 
fidence went so far that they even ventured to break 
the armistice, and to fire upon the besiegers. At last 
the burgomaster, with difficulty, succeeded in bringing 
matters so far toward a peaceful settlement that twelve 
of the town counsellors were sent into the camp with 
the following conditions : The edict by which Valen- 
ciennes had been charged with treason and declared 
an enemy to the country was required to be recalled, 
the confiscation of their goods revoked, and the prison- 
ers on both sides restored to hberty ; the garrison was 
not to enter the town before every one who thought 
good to do so had placed himself and his property in 
security ; and a pledge to be given that the inhabitants 
should not be molested in any manner, and that their 
expenses should be paid by the king. 

Noircarmes was so indignant with these conditions 
that he was almost on the point of ill-treating the 
deputies. If they had not come, he told them, to give 
up the place, they might return forthwith, lest he 
should send them home with their hands tied behind 
their backs. Upon this the deputies threw the blame 
on the obstinacy of the Calvinists, and entreated him, 
with tears in their eyes, to keep them in the camp. 



246 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

as they did not, they said, wish to have anything more 
to do with their rebelhous townsmen, or to be joined 
in their fate. They even knelt to beseech the inter- 
cession of Egmont, but Noircarmes remained deaf to 
all their entreaties, and the sight of the chains which 
he ordered to be brought out drove them reluctantly 
enough back to Valenciennes. Necessity, not severity, 
imposed this harsh procedure upon the general. The 
detention of ambassadors had on a former occasion 
drawn upon him the reprimand of the duchess; the 
people in the town would not have failed to have 
ascribed the non-appearance of their present deputies 
to the same cause as in the former case had detained 
them. Besides, he was loath to deprive the town of 
any out of the small residue of well-disposed citizens, 
or to leave it a prey to a bhnd, foolhardy mob. Egmont 
was so mortified at the bad result of his embassy 
that he the night following rode around to recon- 
noitre its fortifications, and returned well satisfied 
to have convinced himself that it was no longer 
tenable. 

Valenciennes stretches down a gentle acclivity into 
the level plain, being built on a site as strong as it is 
delightful. On one side enclosed by the Scheldt and 
another smaller river, and on the other protected by 
deep ditches, thick walls, and towers, it appears capable 
of defying every attack. But Noircarmes had discov- 
ered a few points where neglect had allowed the fosse 
to be filled almost up to the level of the natural sur- 
face, and of these he determined to avail himself in 
storming. He drew together all the scattered corps 
by which he had invested the town, and during a tem- 
pestuous night carried the suburb of Berg without the 
loss of a single man. He then assigned separate points 
of attack to the Count of Bossu, the young Charles of 
Mansfeld, and the younger Barlaimont, and under a 
terrible fire, which drove the enemy from his walls, 



RfiVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 247 

his troops were moved up with all possible speed. 
Close before the town, and opposite the gate under 
the eyes of the besiegers, and with very Httle loss, a 
battery was thrown up to an equal height with the forti- 
fications. From this point the town was bombarded with 
an unceasing fire for four hours. The Nicolaus tower, 
on which the besieged had planted some artillery, was 
among the first that fell, and many perished under its 
ruins. The guns were directed against all the most 
conspicuous buildings, and a terrible slaughter was 
made amongst the inhabitants. In a few hours their 
principal works were destroyed, and in the gate itself 
so extensive a breach was made that the besieged, 
despairing of any longer defending themselves, sent in 
haste two trumpeters to entreat a parley. This was 
granted, but the storm was continued without inter- 
mission. The ambassador entreated Noircarmes to 
grant them the same terms which only two days 
before they had rejected. But circumstances had 
now changed, and the victor would hear no more of 
conditions. The unceasing fire left the inhabitants 
no time to repair the ramparts, which filled the fosse 
with their debris, and opened many a breach for the 
enemy to enter by. Certain of utter destruction, they 
surrendered next morning at discretion after a bom- 
bardment of six and thirty hours without intermission, 
and three thousand bombs had been thrown into the 
city. Noircarmes marched into the town with his 
victorious army under the strictest discipline, and was 
received by a crowd of women and children, who went 
to meet him, carrying green boughs, and beseeching 
his pity. All the citizens were immediately disarmed, 
the commandant and his son beheaded ; thirty-six of 
the most guilty of the rebels, among whom were La 
Grange and another Calvinistic preacher, Guido de 
Bresse, atoned for their obstinacy at the gallows; all 
the municipal functionaries were deprived of their 



248 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

offices, and the town of all its privileges. The Eoman 
Catholic worship was immediately restored in full 
dignity, and the Protestant abolished. The Bishop of 
Arras was obliged to quit his residence in the town, 
and a strong garrison placed in it to ensure its future 
obedience. 

The fate of Valenciennes, toward which all eyes 
had been turned, was a warning to the other towns 
which had similarly offended. Noircarmes followed 
up his victory, and marched immediately against Maes- 
tricht, which surrendered without a blow, and re- 
ceived a garrison. From thence he marched to Tornhut 
to awe by his presence the people of Herzogenbusch 
and Antwerp. The Gueux in this place, who under 
the command of Bomberg had carried all things before 
them, were now so terrified at his approach that they 
quitted the town in haste. Noircarmes was received 
without opposition. The ambassadors of the duchess 
were immediately set at liberty. A strong garrison 
was thrown into Tornhut. Cambray also opened its 
gates, and joyfully recalled its archbishop, whom the 
Calvinists had driven from his see, and who deserved 
this triumph as he did not stain his entrance with 
blood. Ghent, Ypres, and Oudenarde submitted and 
received garrisons. Guelders was now almost entirely 
cleared of the rebels and reduced to obedience by the 
Count of Megen. In Friesland and Groningen the 
Count of Arenberg had eventually the same success; 
but it was not obtained here so rapidly or so easily, 
since the count wanted consistency and firmness, and 
these warlike republicans maintained more pertina- 
ciously their privileges, and were greatly supported by 
the strength of their position. With the exception 
of Holland all the provinces had yielded before the 
victorious arms of the duchess. The courage of the 
disaffected sunk entirely, and nothing was left to them 
but flight or submission. 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 249 



RESIGNATION OF WILLIAM OF ORANGE. 

Ever since the establishment of the Guesen league, 
but more perceptibly since the outbreak of the Icon- 
oclasts, the spirit of rebellion and disaffection had 
spread so rapidly among all classes, parties had become 
so blended and confused, that the regent had difficulty 
in distinguishing her own adherents, and at last hardly 
knew on whom to rely. The lines of demarcation 
between the loyal and the disaffected had grown 
gradually fainter, until at last they almost entirely 
vanished. The frequent alterations, too, which she 
had been obliged to make in the laws, and which were 
at most the expedients and suggestions of the moment, 
had taken from them their precision and binding force, 
and had given full scope to the arbitrary will of every 
individual whose office it was to interpret them. And 
at last, amidst the number and variety of the inter- 
pretations, the spirit was lost and the intention of 
the lawgiver baffled. The close connection which in 
many cases subsisted between Protestants and Eoman 
Catholics, between Gueux and Eoyalists, and which 
not unfrequently gave them a common interest, led 
the latter to avail themselves of the loophole which the 
vagueness of the laws left open, and in favour of their 
Protestant friends and associates evaded by subtle dis- 
tinctions all severity in the discharge of their duties. 
In their minds it was enough not to be a declared 
rebel, not one of the Gueux, or at least not a heretic, 
to be authorised to mould their duties to their inclina- 
tions, and to set the most arbitrary limits to their 
obedience to the king. Feeling themselves irresponsi- 
ble, the governors of the provinces, the civil function- 
aries, both high and low, the municipal officers, and 
the military commanders had all become extremely 
remiss in their duty, and presuming upon this im- 



250 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

punity showed a pernicious indulgence to the rebels and 
their adherents which rendered abortive all the regent's 
measures of coercion. This general indifference and 
corruption of so many servants of the state had further 
this injurious result, that it led the turbulent to reckon 
on far stronger support than in reality they had cause 
for, and to count on their own side all who were but 
lukewarm adherents of the court. This way of think- 
ing, erroneous as it was, gave them greater courage 
and confidence ; it had the same effect as if it had been 
well founded ; and the uncertain vassals of the king 
became in consequence almost as injurious to him as 
his declared enemies, v^thout at the same time being 
liable to the same measures of severity. This was 
especially the case with the Prince of Orange, Counts 
Egmont, Bergen, Hogstraten, Horn, and several others 
of the higher nobihty. The regent felt the necessity 
of bringing these doubtful subjects to an explanation, 
in order either to deprive the rebels of a fancied sup- 
port or to unmask the enemies of the king. And the 
latter reason was of the more urgent moment when 
being obliged to send an army into the field it was 
of the utmost importance to entrust the command of 
the troops to none but those of whose fidelity she was 
fully assured. She caused, therefore, an oath to be drawn 
up which bound all who took it to advance the Roman 
Catholic faith, to pursue and punish the Iconoclasts, 
and to help by every means in their power in extirpat- 
ing all kinds of heresy. It also pledged them to treat 
the king's enemies as their own, and to serve without 
distinction against all whom the regent in the king's 
name should point out. By this oath she did not 
hope so much to test their sincerity, and still less to 
secure them, as rather to gain a pretext for removing 
the suspected parties if they declined to take it, and 
for wresting from their hands a power which they 
abused, or a legitimate gi-ound for punishing them if 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 251 

they took it and broke it. This oath was exacted 
from all knights of the Fleece, all civil functionaries 
and magistrates, all officers of the army — from every 
one in short who held any appointment in the state. 
Count Mansfeld was the first who publicly took it in 
the Council of State at Brussels; his example was 
followed by the Duke of Aerschot, Counts Egmont, 
Megen, and Barlaimont. Hogstraten and Horn en- 
deavoured to evade the necessity. The former was 
offended at a proof of distrust which shortly before 
the regent had given him. Under the pretext that 
Mahnes could not safely be left any longer without 
its governor, but that the presence of the count was 
no less necessary in Antwerp, she had taken from him 
that province and given it to another whose fidehty 
she could better reckon upon. Hogstraten expressed 
his thanks that she had been pleased to release him 
from one of his burdens, adding that she would com- 
plete the obligation if she would relieve him from the 
other also. True to his determination, Count Horn 
was living on one of his estates in the strong town of 
Weerdt, having retired altogether from public affairs. 
Having quitted the service of the state, he owed, he 
thought, nothing more either to the repubhc or to the 
king, and decHned the oath, which in his case appears 
at last to have been waived. 

The Count of Brederode was left the choice of either 
taking the prescribed oath or resigning the command 
of his squadron of cavalry. After many fruitless at- 
tempts to evade the alternative, on the plea that he 
did not hold office in the state, he at last resolved 
upon the latter course, and thereby escaped all risk of 
perjuring himself. 

Vain were all the attempts to prevail on the Prince 
of Orange to take the oath, who, from the suspicion 
which had long attached to him, required more than 
any other this purffication ; and from whom the great 



252 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

power which it had been necessary to place in his 
hands fully justified the regent in exacting it. It was 
not, however, advisable to proceed against him with 
the laconic brevity adopted toward Brederode and the 
like ; on the other hand, the voluntary resignation of 
all his offices, which he tendered, did not meet the 
object of the regent, who foresaw clearly enough how 
really dangerous he would become, as soon as he should 
feel himself independent, and be no longer checked by 
any external considerations of character or duty in the 
prosecution of his secret designs. But ever since the 
consultation in Dendermonde the Prince of Oransje had 
made up his mind to quit the service of the King of 
Spain on the first favourable opportunity, and till better 
days to leave the country itself. A very disheartening 
experience had taught him how uncertain are hopes 
built on the multitude, and how quickly their zeal is 
cooled by the necessity of fulfilling its lofty promises. 
An army was abeady in the field, and a far stronger 
one was, he knew, on its road, under the command of 
the Duke of Alva. The time for remonstrances was 
past ; it was only at the head of an army that an 
advantageous treaty could now be concluded with the 
regent, and by preventing the entrance of the Spanish 
general. But now where was he to raise this army, in 
want as he was of money, the sinews of warfare, since 
the Protestants had retracted their boastful promises 
and deserted him in this pressing emergency ? ^ Kelig- 

1 How valiant the wish, and how sorry the deed was, is proved 
by the following instance amongst others. Some friends of the 
national liberty, Roman Catholics as well as Protestants, had 
solemnly engaged in Amsterdam to subscribe to a common fund 
the himdredth penny of their estates, until a sum of eleven thou- 
sand florins should be collected, which was to be devoted to the 
common cause and interests. An alms-box, protected by three 
locks, was prepared for the reception of these contributions. 
After the expiration of the prescribed period it was opened, and a 
sum was found amounting to seven hmidred florins, which was 
given to the hostess of the Count of Brederode, in part payment 
of his unliquidated score. — Univ. Hist, of the N., vol. Hi. 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 253 

ious jealousy and hatred, moreover, separated the two 
Protestant churches, and stood in the way of every 
sahitary combination against the common enemy of 
their faith. The rejection of the Confession of Augs- 
burg by the Calviuists had exasperated all the Protes- 
tant princes of Germany, so that no support was to be 
looked for from the emphe. With Count Egmont the 
excellent army of Walloons was also lost to the cause, 
for they followed with blind devotion the fortunes of 
their general, who had taught them at St. Quentin 
and Gravelines to be invincible. And again, the out- 
rages which the Iconoclasts had perpetrated on the 
churches and convents had estranged from the league 
the numerous, wealthy, and powerful class of the estab- 
lished clergy, who, before this unlucky episode, were 
already more than half gained over to it; while, by 
her intrigues, the regent daily contrived to deprive the 
league itself of some one or other of its most influential 
members. 

All these considerations combined induced the prince 
to postpone to a more favourable season a project for 
which the present juncture was little suited, and to 
leave a country where his longer stay could not effect 
any advantage for it, but must bring certain destruction 
on himself. After intelligence gleaned from so many 
quarters, after so many proofs of distrust, so many 
warnings from Madrid, he could be no longer doubtful 
of the sentiments of Phihp toward him. If even he 
had any doubt, his uncertainty would soon have been 
dispelled by the formidable armament which w^as pre- 
paring in Spain, and which was to have for its leader, 
not the king, as was falsely given out, but, as he was 
better informed, the Duke of Alva, his personal enemy, 
and the very man he had most cause to fear. The 
prince had seen too deeply into Philip's heart to believe 
in the sincerity of his reconciliation after having once 
awakened his fears. He judged his own conduct too 



2 54 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

justly to reckon, like his friend Egmont, on reaping a 
gratitude from the king to which he had not sown. 
He could therefore expect nothing but hostihty from 
him, and prudence counselled him to screen himself 
by a timely flight from its actual outbreak. He had 
hitherto obstinately refused to take the new oath, and 
all the written exhortations of the regent had been 
fruitless. At last she sent to him at Antwerp her 
private secretary, Berti, who was to put the matter 
emphatically to his conscience, and forcibly remind 
him of all the evil consequences which so sudden a 
retirement from the royal service would draw upon the 
country, as well as the irreparable injury it would do 
to his own' fair fame. Already, she informed him by 
her ambassador, his declining the required oath had 
cast a shade upon his honour, and imparted to the 
general voice, which accused him of an understanding 
with the rebels, an appearance of truth which this 
unconditional resignation would convert to absolute 
certainty. It was for the sovereign to discharge his 
servants, but it did not become the servant to abandon 
his sovereign. The envoy of the regent found the 
prince in his palace at Antwerp, already, as it appeared, 
withdrawn from the public service, and entirely devoted 
to his private concerns. The prince told him, in the 
presence of Hogstraten, that he had refused to take 
the required oath because he could not find that such 
a proposition had ever before been made to a governor 
of a province ; because he had already bound himself, 
once for all, to the king, and therefore, by taking this 
new oath, he would tacitly acknowledge that he had 
broken the first. He had also refused because the old 
oath enjoined him to protect the rights and privileges 
of the country, but he could not tell whether this new 
one might not impose upon him duties which would 
contravene the first ; because, too, the clause which 
bound him to serve, if required, against all without dis- 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 255 

tinction, did not except even the emperor, his feudal 
lord, against whom, however, he, as his vassal, could 
not conscientiously make war. He had refused to take 
this oath because it might impose upon him the neces- 
sity of surrendering his friends and relations, his chil- 
dren, nay, even his wife, who was a Lutheran, to 
butchery. According to it, moreover, he must lend 
himself to everything which it should occur to the 
king's fancy or passion to demand. But the king might 
thus exact from him things which he shuddered even 
to think of, and even the severities which were now, 
and had been all along, exercised upon the Protestants, 
were the most revolting to his heart. This oath, in 
short, was repugnant to his feehngs as a man, and he 
could not take it. In conclusion, the name of the 
Duke of Alva dropped from his hps in a tone of bitter- 
ness, and he became immediately silent. 

All these objections were answered, point by point, 
by Berti. Certainly such an oath had never been 
required from a governor before him, because the prov- 
inces had never been similarly circumstanced. It was 
not exacted because the governors had broken the first, 
but in order to remind them vividly of their former 
vows, and to freshen their activity in the present emer- 
gency. This oath would not impose upon him any- 
thing which offended against the rights and privileges 
of the country, for the king had sworn to observe these 
as well as the Prince of Orange. The oath did not, it 
was true, contain any reference to a war with the 
emperor, or any other sovereign to whom the prince 
might be related ; and if he really had scruples on 
this point, a distinct clause could easily be inserted, 
expressly providing against such a contingency. Care 
would be. taken to spare him any duties which were 
repugnant to his feehngs as a man, and no power on 
earth would compel him to act against his wife or 
against his children. Berti was then passing to the 



256 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

last point, which related to the Duke of Alva, but the 
prince, who did not wish to have this part of his dis- 
course c-anvassed, iuterniptod him. "The king was 
coming to the Xetlierlauds," he said, - and he knew 
the king. The king would not endure that one of his 
servants should have wedded a Lutheran, and he had 
therefore resolved to go with his whole family into 
voluntary banishment before he was obliged to submit 
to the same by compulsion. But," he concluded, 
" wherever he might be, he would always conduct him- 
self as a subject of the king." Thus far-fetched were 
the motives which the prince adduced to avoid toucliing 
upon the single one wliich really decided him. 

Berti had still a hope of obtaining, through Egmont's 
eloquence, what by his own he despaired of efiecting. 
He therefore proposed a meeting with the latter (1567), 
which the prince assented to the more wilUngly as he 
himself felt a desire to embrace his friend once more 
before his departure, and if possible to snatch the 
deluded man from certain destruction. This remark- 
able meeting, at which the private secretary, Berti, and 
the young Count Mansfeld were also present, was the 
last that the two friends ever held, and took place 
in Yillebroeck, a village on the Eupel, between Brussels 
and Antwerp. The Calvinists, whose last hope rested 
on the issue of this conference, found means to acquaint 
themselves of its import by a spy, who concealed liim- 
self in the chimney of the apartment where it was 
held. All three attempted to shake the determination 
of the prince, but their united eloquence was unable to 
move him from his purposa " It will cost you your 
estates. Orange, if you persist in this intention," said 
the Prince of Gaure. as he took him aside to a window. 
" And you your life, Egmont, if you change not yours," 
replied the former. " To me it \\i\\ at least be a con- 
solation in mv misfortunes that I desired, in deed as 
well as in word, to help my country and my friends in 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 257 

the hour of need ; but you, my friend, you are dragging 
friends and country with you to destruction." And 
saying these words, he once again exhorted him, 
still more urgently than ever, to return to the cause 
of his country, which his arm alone was yet able 
to preserve ; if not, at least for his own sake to avoid 
the tempest which was gathering against him from 
Spain. 

But all the arguments, however lucid, with which 
a far-discerning prudence supphed him, and however 
urgently enforced, with all the ardour and animation 
which the tender anxiety of friendship could alone 
inspire, did not avail to destroy the fatal confidence 
which still fettered Egmont's better reason. The warn- 
ing of Orange seemed to come from a sad and dispirited 
heart; but for Egmont the world still smiled. To 
abandon the pomp and affluence in which he had 
grown up to youth and manhood ; to part with all the 
thousand conveniences of life which alone made it 
valuable to him, and all this to escape an evil which 
his buoyant spirit regarded as remote, if not imagi- 
nary ; no, that was not a sacrifice which could be 
asked from Egmont. But had he even been less given 
to indulgence than he was, with what heart could 
he have consigned a princess, accustomed by uninter- 
rupted prosperity to ease and comfort, a wife who 
loved him as dearly as she was beloved, the children 
on whom his soul hung in hope and fondness, to 
privations at the prospect of which his own courage 
sank, and which a sublime philosophy alone can enable 
sensuality to undergo. " You will never persuade me. 
Orange," said Egmont, " to see things in the gloomy 
light in which they appear to thy mournful prudence. 
When I have succeeded in abolishing the public preach- 
ings, and chastising the Iconoclasts, in crushing the 
rebels, and restoring peace and order in the provinces, 
what can the king lay to my charge? The king is 



258 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

good and just ; I have claims upon his gratitude, and I 
must not forget what I owe to myself." "Well, then," 
.cried Orange, indignantly and with bitter anguish, 
" trust, if you will, to this royal gratitude ; but a 
mournful presentiment tells me — and may Heaven 
grant that I am deceived ! — that you, Egmont, will 
be the bridge by which the Spaniards will pass into 
our country to destroy it." After these words, he 
drew him to his bosom, ardently clasping him in 
his arms. Long, as though the sight was to serve 
for the remainder of his life, did he keep his eyes 
fixed upon him; the tears fell; they saw each other 
no more. 

The very next day the Prince of Orange wrote 
his letter of resignation to the regent, in which he 
assured her of his perpetual esteem, and once again 
entreated her to put the best interpretation on his 
present step. He then set off with his three brothers 
and his whole family for his own town of Breda, where 
he remained only as long as was requisite to arrange 
some private affairs. His eldest son. Prince Philip 
William, was left behind at the University of Louvain, 
where he thought him sufficiently secure under the 
protection of the privileges of Brabant and the immuni- 
ties of the academy ; an imprudence which, if it was 
really not designed, can hardly be reconciled with the 
just estimate which, in so many other cases, he had 
taken of the character of his adversary. In Breda 
the heads of the Calvinists once more consulted him 
whether there was still hope for them, or whether 
all was irretrievably lost. "He had before advised 
them," replied the prince, " and must now do so again, 
to accede to the Confession of Augsburg; then they 
might rely upon aid from Germany. If they would 
still not consent to this, they must raise six hundred 
thousand florins, or more, if they could." " The first," 
they answered, " was at variance with their conviction 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 259 

and their conscience ; but means might perhaps be 
found to raise the money if he would only let them 
know for what purpose he would use it." " No ! " cried 
he, with the utmost displeasure, " if I must tell you 
that, it is all over with the use of it." With these 
words he immediately broke off the conference and 
dismissed the deputies. 

The Prince of Orange was reproached w^ith having 
squandered his fortune, and with favouring the innova- 
tions on account of his debts ; but he asserted that he 
still enjoyed sixty thousand florins yearly rental. Be- 
fore his departure he borrowed twenty thousand florins 
from the states of Holland on the mortgage of some 
manors. Men could hardly persuade themselves that 
he would have succumbed to necessity so entirely, and 
without an effort at resistance given up all his hopes 
and schemes. But what he secretly meditated no one 
knew, no one had read in his heart. Being asked how 
he intended to conduct himself toward the King of 
Spain, " Quietly," was his answer, " unless he touches 
my honour or my estates." He left the Netherlands 
soon afterward, and betook himself in retirement to 
the town of Dillenburg, in Nassau, at which place 
he was born. He was accompanied to Germany by 
many hundreds, either as his servants or as volunteers, 
and was soon followed by Counts Hogstraten, Kuilem- 
berg, and Bergen, who preferred to share a voluntary 
exile with him rather than recklessly involve them- 
selves in an uncertain destiny. In his departure the 
nation saw the flight of its guardian angel ; many had 
adored, all had honoured him. With him the last stay 
of the Protestants gave way ; they, however, had 
greater hopes from this man in exile than from all 
the others together who remained behind. Even the 
Eoman Catholics could not witness his departure with- 
out regret. Them, also, had he shielded from tyranny ; 
he had not unfrequently protected them against the 



26o REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

oppression of their own church, and he had rescued 
many of them from the sanguinary jealousy of their 
rehgious opponents. A few fanatics among the Cal- 
vinists, who were offended with his proposal of an 
alliance with their brethren, who avow^ed the Confes- 
sion of Augsburg, solemnised with secret thanksgivings 
the day on which the enemy left them (1567). 

DECAY AND DISPERSION OF THE GEUSEN LEAGUE. 

Immediately after taking leave of his friend, the 
Prince of Gaure hastened back to Brussels, to receive 
from the regent the reward of his firmness, and there, 
in the excitement of the court and in the sunshine 
of his good fortune, to dispel the light cloud which the 
earnest warnings of the Prince of Orange had cast over 
his natural gaiety. The flight of the latter now left 
him in possession of the stage. He had now no longer 
any rival in the republic to dim his glory. With re- 
doubled zeal he wooed the transient favour of the 
court, above which he ought to have felt himself 
far exalted. All Brussels must participate in his joy. 
He gave splendid banquets and public entertainments, 
at which, the better to eradicate all suspicion from his 
mind, the regent herself frequently attended. Not 
content with having taken the required oath, he out- 
stripped the most devout in devotion ; outran the most 
zealous in zeal to extirpate the Protestant faith, and to 
reduce by force of arms the refractory towns of Flan- 
ders. He declared to his old friend. Count Hogstraten, 
as also to the rest of the Gueux, that he would with- 
draw from them his friendship for ever if they hesitated 
any longer to return into the bosom of the Church, 
and reconcile themselves with their king. All the 
confidential letters which had been exchanged between 
him and them were returned, and by this last step the 
breach between them was made public and irreparable. 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 261 

Egmont's secession, and the flight of the Prince of 
Orange, destroyed the last hope of the Protestants and 
dissolved the whole league of the Gueux Its mem- 
bers vied with each other in readiness — nay, they 
could not soon enough abjure the covenant and take 
the new oath proposed to them by the government. In 
vain did the Protestant merchants exclaim at this 
breach of faith on the part of the nobles ; their weak 
voice was no longer listened to, and all the sums were 
lost with which they had supphed the league. 

The most important places were quickly reduced 
and garrisoned ; the rebels had fled, or perished by the 
hand of the executioner ; in the provinces no protector 
was left. All yielded to the fortune of the regent, and 
her victorious army was advancing against Antwerp. 
After a long and obstinate contest this town had been 
cleared of the worst rebels ; Hermann and his adher- 
ents took to flight; the internal storms had spent 
their rage. The minds of the people became gradually 
composed, and no longer excited at will by every furi- 
ous fanatic, began to Hsten to better counsels. The 
wealthier citizens earnestly longed for peace to revive 
commerce and trade, which had sujffered severely from 
the long reign of anarchy. The dread of Alva's ap- 
proach worked wonders ; in order to prevent the miseries 
which a Spanish army would inflict upon the country, 
the people hastened to throw themselves on the gentler 
mercies of the regent. Of their own accord they des- 
patched plenipotentiaries to Brussels to negotiate for 
a treaty and to hear her terms. Agreeably as the regent 
was surprised by this voluntary step, she did not allow 
herself to be hurried away by her joy. She declared 
that she neither could nor would listen to any over- 
tures or representations until the town had received a 
garrison. Even this was no longer opposed, and Count 
Mansfeld marched in the day after with sixteen squad- 
rons in battle array. A solemn treaty was now made 



262 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

between the town and duchess, by which the former 
bound itself to prohibit the Calvinistic form of worship, 
to banish all preachers of that persuasion, to restore 
the Eoman Cathohc religion to its former dignity, to 
decorate the despoiled churches with their former orna- 
ments, to administer the old edicts as before, to take 
the new oath which the other towns had sworn to, and, 
lastly, to deliver into the hands of justice all who had 
been guilty of treason, in bearing arms, or taking part 
in the desecration of the churches. On the other hand, 
the regent pledged herself to forget all that had passed, 
and even to intercede for the offenders with the king. 
All those who, being dubious of obtaining pardon, pre- 
ferred banishment, were to be allowed a month to con- 
vert their property into money, and place themselves 
in safety. From this grace none were to be excluded 
but such as had been guilty of a capital offence, and 
who were excepted by the previous article. Immedi- 
ately upon the conclusion of this treaty all Calvinist 
and Lutheran preachers in Antwerp, and the adjoining 
territory, were warned by the herald to quit the coun- 
try within twenty-four hours. All the streets and 
gates were now thronged with fugitives, who for the 
honour of their God abandoned what was dearest to 
them, and sought a more peaceful home for their per- 
secuted faith. Here husbands were taking an eternal 
farewell of their wives, fathers of their children ; there 
whole families were preparing to depart. All Antwerp 
resembled a house of mourning; wherever the eye 
turned some affecting spectacle of painful separation 
presented itself. A seal was set on the doors of the 
Protestant churches ; the whole worship seemed to be 
extinct. The 10th of April (1567) was the day ap- 
pointed for the departure of the preachers. In the 
town hall, where they appeared for the last time to 
take leave of the magistrate, they could not command 
their grief; but broke forth into bitter reproaches. 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 263 

They had been sacrificed, they exclaimed, they had 
been shamefully betrayed ; but a time would come 
when Antwerp would pay dearly enough for this base- 
ness. Still more bitter were the complaints of the 
Lutheran clergy, whom the magistrate himself had in- 
vited into the country to preach against the Calvinists. 
Under the delusive representation that the king was 
not unfavourable to their rehgion they had been seduced 
into a combination against the Calvinists, but as soon 
as the latter had been by their cooperation brought 
under subjection, and their own services were no longer 
required, they were left to bewail their folly, which had 
involved themselves and their enemies in common ruin. 
A few days afterward the regent entered Antwerp in 
triumph, accompanied by a thousand Walloon horse, 
the knights of the Golden Fleece, all the governors 
and counsellors, a number of municipal officers, and 
her whole court. Her first visit was to the cathedral, 
which still bore lamentable traces of the violence of the 
Iconoclasts, and drew from her many and bitter tears. 
Immediately afterward four of the rebels, who had been 
overtaken in their flight, were brought in and executed 
in the public market-place. All the children who had 
been baptised after the Protestant rites were rebaptised 
by Koman Cathohc priests ; all the schools of heretics 
were closed, and their churches levelled to the ground. 
Nearly all the towns in the ^Netherlands followed the 
example of Antwerp and banished the Protestant 
preachers. By the end of April the Roman Catholic 
churches were repaired and embellished more splendidly 
than ever, while all the Protestant places of worship 
were pulled down, and every vestige of the proscribed 
behef obliterated in the seventeen provinces. The pop- 
ulace, whose sympathies are generally with the success- 
ful party, was now as active in accelerating the ruin 
of the unfortunate as a short time before it had been 
furiously zealous in its cause ; in Ghent a large and 



264 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

beautiful church which the Calvinists had erected was 
attacked, and in less than an hour had wholly disap- 
peared. From the beams of the roofless churches gib- 
bets were erected for those who had profaned the 
sanctuaries of the Eoman Catholics. The places of 
execution were filled with corpses, the prisons with 
condemned victims, the highroads with fugitives. In- 
numerable were the victims of this year of murder; 
in the smallest towns fifty at least, in several of the 
larger as many as three hundred, were put to death, 
while no account was kept of the numbers in the open 
country who fell into the hands of the provost-marshal 
and were immediately strung up as miscreants, without 
trial and without mercy. 

The regent was still in Antwerp when ambassadors 
presented themselves from the Electors of Brandenburg, 
Saxony, Hesse, Wiirtemberg, and Baden to intercede 
for their fugitive brethren in the faith. The expelled 
preachers of the Augsburg Confession had claimed the 
rights assured to them by the religious peace of the 
Germans, in which Brabant, as part of the empire, 
participated, and had thrown themselves on the pro- 
tection of those princes. The arrival of the foreign 
ministers alarmed the regent, and she vainly endeav- 
oured to prevent their entrance into Antwerp ; under 
the guise, however, of showing them marks of honour, 
she continued to keep them closely w^atched lest they 
should encourage the malcontents in any attempts 
against the peace of the town. From the high tone 
which they most unreasonably adopted toward the 
regent it might almost be inferred that they were little 
in earnest in their demand. " It was but reasonable," 
they said, " that the Confession of Augsburg, as the 
only one which met the spirit of the gospel, should be 
the ruling faith in the Netherlands ; but to persecute 
it by such cruel edicts as were in force was positively 
unnatural and could not be allowed. They therefore 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 265 

required of the regent, in the name of religion, not to 
treat the people entrusted to her rule with such severity. 
She replied through the Count of Staremberg, her min- 
ister for Grermau affairs, that such an exordium deserved 
no answer at all. From the sympathy which the Ger- 
man princes had shown for the Belgian fugitives it was 
clear that they gave less credit to the letters of the 
king, in explanation of his measures, than to the reports 
of a few worthless -svi-etches who, in the desecrated 
churches, had left behind them a worthier memorial of 
their acts and characters. It would far more become 
them to leave to the King of Spain the care of his own 
subjects, and abandon the attempt to foster a spirit of 
rebellion in foreign countries, from which they would 
reap neither honour nor profit. The ambassadors left 
Antwerp in a few days without having effected any- 
thing. The Saxon minister, indeed, in a private inter- 
view with the regent, even assured her that his master 
had most reluctantly taken this step. 

The German ambassadors had not quitted Antwerp 
when intelligence from Holland completed the triumph 
of the regent. From fear of Count Megen Count Brede- 
rode had deserted his town of Viane, and with the aid 
of the Protestant inhabitants had succeeded in throw- 
ing himself into Amsterdam, wiiere his arrival caused 
great alarm to the city magistrate, who had previously 
found difficulty in preventing a revolt, while it revived 
the courage of the Protestants. Here Brederode's ad- 
herents increased daily, and many noblemen flocked 
to him from Utrecht, Friesland, and Groningen, whence 
the victorious arms of Megen and Arenberg had driven 
them. Under various disguises they found means to 
steal into the city, where they gathered around Brede- 
rode, and served him as a strong body-guard. The 
regent, apprehensive of a new outbreak, sent one of her 
private secretaries, Jacob de la Torre, to the council of 
Amsterdam, and ordered them to get rid of Count 



2 66 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

Brederode on any terms and at any risk. Neither the 
magistrate nor De la Torre himself, who visited Brede- 
rode in person to acquaint him with the will of the 
duchess, could prevail upon him to depart. The secre- 
tary was even surprised in his own chamber by a party 
of Brederode's followers, and deprived of all his papers, 
and would, perhaps, have lost his life also if he had not 
contrived to make his escape. Brederode remained in 
Amsterdam a full month after this occurrence, a power- 
less idol of the Protestants, and an oppressive burden 
to the Eoman Cathohcs ; while his fine army, which he 
had left in Yiane, reinforced by many fugitives from 
the southern provinces, gave Count Megen enough to 
do without attempting to harass the Protestants in 
their flight. At last Brederode resolved to follow the 
example of Orange, and, yielding to necessity, abandon 
a desperate cause. He informed the town council that 
he was wilhng to leave Amsterdam if they would ena- 
ble him to do so by furnishing him with the pecuniary 
means. Glad to get quit of him, they hastened to 
borrow the money on the security of the town council. 
Brederode quitted Amsterdam the same night, and was 
conveyed in a gunboat as far as Vhe, from whence he 
fortunately escaped to Embden. Fate treated him 
more mildly than the majority of those he had impli- 
cated in his foolhardy enterprise ; he died the year 
after, 1568, at one of his castles in Germany, from the 
effects of drinking, by which he sought ultimately to 
drown his grief and disappointments. His widow. 
Countess of Moers in her own right, was remarried to 
the Prince Palatine, Frederick III. The Protestant 
cause lost but httle by his demise ; the work which he 
had commenced, as it had not been kept alive by him, 
so it did not die with him. 

The little army, which in his disgraceful flight he had 
deserted, was bold and valiant, and had a few resolute 
leaders. It disbanded, indeed, as soon as he, to whom 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 267 

it looked for pay, had fled ; but hunger and courage 
kept its parts together some time longer. One body, 
under command of Dietrich of Battenburg, marched 
to Amsterdam in the hope of carrying that town ; but 
Count Megen hastened with thirteen companies of ex- 
cellent troops to its rehef, and compelled the rebels to 
give up the attempt. Contenting themselves with 
plundering the neighbouring cloisters, among which the 
abbey of Egmont in particular was hardly dealt with, 
they turned off toward Waaterland, where they hoped 
the numerous swamps would protect them from pur- 
suit. But thither Count Megen followed them, and 
compelled them in all haste to seek safety in the Zuy- 
der Zee. The brothers Van Battenburg, and two Frisian 
nobles, Beima and Galama, with a hundred and twenty 
men and the booty they had taken from the monas- 
teries, embarked near the town of Hoorne, intending to 
cross to Friesland, but through the treachery of the 
steersman, who ran the vessel on a sand - bank near 
Harlingen, they fell into the hands of one of Aren- 
berg's captains, who took them all prisoners. The 
Count of Arenberg immediately pronounced sentence 
upon all the captives of plebeian rank, but sent his 
noble prisoners to the regent, who caused seven of 
them to be beheaded. Seven others of the most noble, 
including the brothers Van Battenburg and some Fries- 
landers, all in the bloom of youth, were reserved for the 
Duke of Alva, to enable him to signalise the commence- 
ment of his administration by a deed which was in 
every way worthy of him. The troops in four other 
vessels which set sail from Medenbhck, and were pur- 
sued by Count Megen in small boats, were more suc- 
cessful. A contrary wind had forced them out of their 
course and driven them ashore on the coast of Guelders, 
where they all got safe to land ; crossing the Rhine, 
near Heusen, they fortunately escaped into Cleves, 
where they tore their flags in pieces and dispersed. In 



2 68 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

North Holland Count Megen overtook some squadrons 
who had hngered too long in plundering the cloisters, 
and completely overpowered them. He afterward 
formed a junction wdth Noircarmes and garrisoned 
Amsterdam. The Duke Erich of Brunswick also sur- 
prised three companies, the last remains of the army of 
the Gueux, near Viane, where they were endeavouring 
to take a battery, routed them and captured their leader, 
Kennesse, who was shortly afterward beheaded at the 
castle of Freudenburg, in Utrecht. Subsequently, when 
Duke Erich entered Viane, he found nothing but de- 
serted streets, the inhabitants having left it with the 
garrison on the first alarm. He immediately razed 
the fortifications, and reduced this arsenal of the Gueux 
to an open town without defences. All the originators 
of the league were now dispersed ; Brederode and Louis 
of Nassau had fled to Germany, and Counts Hogstraten, 
Bergen, and Kuilemberg had followed their example. 
Mansfeld had seceded, the brothers Van Battenburg 
awaited in prison an ignominious fate, while Thoulouse 
alone had found an honourable death on the field of 
battle. Those of the confederates who had escaped the 
sword of the enemy and the axe of the executioner had 
saved nothing but their lives, and thus the title which 
they had assumed for show became at last a terrible 
reality. 

Such was the inglorious end of the noble league, 
which in its beginning awakened such fair hopes and 
promised to become a powerful protection against 
oppression. Unanimity was its strength, distrust and 
internal dissension its ruin. It brought to light and 
developed many rare and beautiful virtues, but it 
wanted the most indispensable of all, prudence and 
moderation, without which any undertaking must mis- 
carry, and all the fruits of the most laborious industry 
perish. If its objects had been as pure as it pretended, 
or even had they remained as pure as they really were 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 269 

at its first establishment, it might have defied the un- 
fortunate combination of circumstances which prema- 
turely overwhelmed it, and even if unsuccessful it 
would still have deserved an honourable mention in 
history. But it is too evident that the confederate 
nobles, whether directly or indirectly, took a greater 
share in the frantic excesses of the Iconoclasts than 
comported with the dignity and blamelessness of their 
confederation, and many among them openly exchanged 
their own good cause for the mad enterprise of these 
worthless vagabonds. The restriction of the Inquisi- 
tion and a mitigation of the cruel inhumanity of the 
edicts must be laid to the credit of the league ; but 
this transient rehef was dearly purchased, at the cost 
of so many of the best and bravest citizens, who either 
lost their lives in the field, or in exile carried their 
wealth and industry to another quarter of the world ; 
and of the presence of Alva and the Spanish arms. 
Many, too, of its peaceable citizens, who without its 
dangerous temptations would never have been seduced 
from the ranks of peace and order, were beguiled by 
the hope of success into the most culpable enterprises, 
and by their failure plunged into ruin and misery. But 
it cannot be denied that the league atoned in some 
measure for these wrongs by positive benefits. It 
brought together and emboldened many whom a selfish 
pusillanimity kept asunder and inactive ; it diffused a 
salutary public spirit amongst the Belgian people, which 
the oppression of the government had almost entirely 
extinguished, and gave unanimity and a common voice 
to the scattered members of the nation, the absence of 
which alone makes despots bold. The attempt, indeed, 
failed, and the knots, too carelessly tied, were quickly . 
unloosed ; but it was through such failures that the 
nation was eventually to attain to a firm and lasting 
union, which should bid defiance to change. 

The total destruction of the Geusen army quickly 



270 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

brought tlie Dutch towns also back to their obedience, 
and in the provinces there remained not a single place 
which had not submitted to the regent ; but the in- 
creasing emigration, both of the natives and the foreign 
residents, threatened the country with depopulation. 
In Amsterdam the crowd of fugitives was so great that 
vessels were wanting to convey them across the North 
Sea and the Zuyder Zee, and that flourishing emporium 
beheld with dismay the approaching downfall of its 
prosperity. Alarmed at this general flight, the regent 
hastened to write letters to all the towns, to encourage 
the citizens to remain, and by fair promises to revive a 
hope of better and milder measures. In the king's 
name she promised to all who would freely swear to 
obey the state and the Church complete indemnity, and 
by public proclamation invited the fugitives to trust to 
the royal clemency and return to their homes. She 
engaged also to relieve the nation from the dreaded 
presence of a Spanish army, even if it were already on 
the frontiers ; nay, she went so far as to drop hints that, 
if necessary, means might be found to prevent it by 
force from entering the provinces, as she was fully de- 
termined not to relinquish to another the glory of a 
peace which it had cost her so much labour to effect. 
Few, however, returned in reliance upon her word, and 
these few had cause to repent it in the sequel ; many 
thousands had already quitted the country, and several 
thousands more quickly followed them. Germany and 
England were filled with Flemish emigrants, who, 
wherever they settled, retained their usages and man- 
ners, and even their costume, unwilling to come to the 
painful conclusion that they should never again see 
their native land, and to give up all hopes of return. 
Few carried with them any remains of their former 
affluence; the greater portion had to beg their way, 
and bestowed on their adopted country nothing but 
industrious skill and honest citizens. 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 271 

And now the regent hastened to report to the king 
tidings such as, during her whole administration, she 
had never before been able to gratify him with. She 
announced to him that she had succeeded in restoring 
quiet throughout the provinces, and that she thought 
herself strong enough to maintain it. The sects were 
extirpated, and the Koman Catholic worship reestab- 
lished in all its former splendour ; the rebels had either 
already met with, or were awaiting in prison, the 
punishment they deserved ; the towns were secured by 
adequate garrisons. There was, therefore, no necessity 
for sending Spanish troops into the Netherlands, and 
nothing to justify their entrance. Their arrival would 
tend to destroy the existing repose, which it had cost 
so much to establish, would check the much desired 
revival of commerce and trade, and, while it would 
involve the country in new expenses, would at the 
same time deprive them of the only means of support- 
ing them. The mere rumour of the approach of a 
Spanish army had stripped the country of many thou- 
sands of its most valuable citizens ; its actual appear- 
ance would reduce it to a desert. As there was no 
longer any enemy to subdue, or rebellion to suppress, 
the people would see no motive for the march of this 
army but punishment and revenge, and under this sup- 
position its arrival would neither be welcomed nor 
honoured. No longer excused by necessity, this vio- 
lent expedient would assume the odious aspect of 
oppression, would exasperate the national mind afresh, 
drive the Protestants to desperation, and arm their 
brethren in other countries in their defence. The 
regent, she said, had in the king's name promised the 
nation it should be relieved from this foreign army, and 
to this stipulation she was principally indebted for the 
present peace ; she could not therefore guarantee its 
long continuance if her pledge was not faithfully ful- 
filled. The Netherlands would receive him as their 



272 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

sovereign, the king, with every mark of attachment 
and veneration, but he must come as a father to bless, 
not as a despot to chastise them. Let him come to 
enjoy the peace which she had bestowed on the 
country, but not to destroy it afresh. 

ALVA'S armament and EXPEDITION TO THE 
NETHERLANDS. 

But it was otherwise determined in the council at 
Madrid. The minister, Granvella, who, even while 
absent himself, ruled the Spanish cabinet by his ad- 
herents ; the cardinal grand inquisitor, Spinosa, and 
the Duke of Alva, swayed respectively by hatred, a 
spirit of persecution, or private interest, had outvoted 
the milder councils of the Prince Euy Gomes of Eboli, 
the Count of Feria, and the king's confessor, Fresneda. 
The insurrection, it was urged by the former, was 
indeed quelled for the present, but only because the 
rebels were awed by the rumour of the king's armed 
approach ; it was to fear of punishment alone, and not 
to sorrow for their crime, that the present calm was to 
be ascribed, and it would soon again be broken if that 
feeling were allowed to subside. In fact, the offences 
of the people fairly afforded the king the opportunity 
he had so long desired of carrying out his despotic 
views with an appearance of justice. The peaceable 
settlement for which the regent took credit to herself 
was very far from according with his wishes, which 
sought rather for a legitimate pretext to deprive the 
provinces of their privileges, which were so obnoxious 
to his despotic temper. 

With an impenetrable dissimulation Philip had 
hitherto fostered the general delusion that he was 
about to visit the provinces in person, while all along 
nothing could have been more remote from his real 
intentions. Travelling at any time ill suited the 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 275 

methodical regularity of his life, which moved with the 
precision of clockwork; and his narrow and sluggish 
intellect was oppressed by the variety and multitude of 
objects with which new scenes crowded it. The diffi- 
culties and dangers which would attend a journey to 
the Netherlands must, therefore, have been peculiarly 
alarming to his natural timidity and love of ease. 
Why should he, who, in all that he did, was accus- 
tomed to consider himself alone, and to make men 
accommodate themselves to his principles, not his 
principles to men, undertake so perilous an expedition, 
when he could see neither the advantage nor necessity 
of it. Moreover, as it had ever been to him an utter 
impossibihty to separate, even for a moment, his per- 
son from his royal dignity, which no prince ever 
guarded so tenaciously and pedantically as himself, so 
the magnificence and ceremony which in his mind were 
inseparably connected with such a journey, and the 
expenses which, on this account, it would necessarily 
occasion, were of themselves sufficient motives to 
account for his indisposition to it, without its being at 
all requisite to call in the aid of the influence of his 
favourite, Euy Gomes, who is said to have desired to 
separate his rival, the Duke of Alva, from the king. 
Little, however, as he seriously intended this journey, 
he still deemed it advisable to keep up the expectation 
of it, as well with a view of sustaining the courage of 
the loyal as of preventing a dangerous combination 
of the disaffected, and stopping the further progress of 
the rebels. 

In order to carry on the deception as long as pos- 
sible, Philip made extensive preparations for his de- 
parture, and neglected nothing which could be required 
for such an event. He ordered ships to be fitted out, 
appointed the officers and others to attend him. To 
allay the suspicion such warlike preparations might 
excite in all foreign courts, they were informed through 



274 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

his ambassadors of his real design. He applied to the 
King of France for a passage for himself and attend- 
ants through that kingdom, and consulted the Duke of 
Savoy as to the preferable route. He caused a Hst to 
be drawn up of all the towns and fortified places that 
lay in his march, and directed all the intermediate dis- 
tances to be accurately laid down. Orders were issued 
for taking a map and survey of the whole extent of 
country between Savoy and Burgundy, the duke being 
requested to furnish the requisite surveyors and scien- 
tific officers. To such lengths was the deception carried 
that the regent was commanded to hold eight vessels 
at least in readiness off Zealand, and to despatch 
them to meet the king the instant she heard of his 
having sailed from Spain ; and these ships she actually 
got ready, and caused prayers to be offered up in all 
the churches for the king's safety during the voyage, 
though in secret many persons did not scruple to 
remark that in his chamber at Madrid his Majesty 
would not have much cause to dread the storm at sea. 
Philip played his part with such masterly skill that the 
Belgian ambassadors at Madrid, Lords Bergen and 
Montigny, who at first had disbelieved in the sincerity 
of his pretended journey, began at last to be alarmed, 
and infected their friends in Brussels with similar 
apprehensions. An attack of tertian ague, which about 
this time the king suffered, or perhaps feigned, in 
Segovia, afforded a plausible pretence for postponing 
his journey, while meantime the preparations for it 
were carried on with the utmost activity. At last, 
when the urgent and repeated solicitations of his sister 
compelled him to make a definite explanation of his 
plans, he gave orders that the Duke of Alva should 
set out forthwith with an army, both to clear the way 
before him of rebels, and to enhance the splendour of 
his own royal arrival. He did not yet venture to 
throw off the mask and announce the duke as his sub- 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 275 

stitute. He had but too mucli reason to fear that the 
submission which his Flemish nobles would cheerfully 
yield to their sovereign would be refused to one of his 
servants, whose cruel character was well known, and 
who, moreover, was detested as a foreigner and the 
enemy of their constitution. And, in fact, the uni- 
versal belief that the king was soon to follow, which 
long survived Alva's entrance into the country, re- 
strained the outbreak of disturbances which otherwise 
would assuredly have been caused by the cruelties 
which marked the very opening of the duke's govern- 
ment. 

The clergy of Spain, and especially the Inquisition, 
contributed richly toward the expenses of this expedi- 
tion as to a holy war. Throughout Spain the enlisting 
was carried on with the utmost zeal. The viceroys 
and governors of Sardinia, Sicily, Naples, and Milan 
received orders to select the best of their Italian and 
Spanish troops in the garrisons and despatch them to 
the general rendezvous in the Genoese territory, where 
the Duke of Alva would exchange them for the Span- 
ish recruits which he should bring with him. At the 
same time the regent was commanded to hold in readi- 
ness a few more regiments of German infantry in Lux- 
embourg, under the command of the Counts Eberstein, 
Schaumburg, and Lodrona, and also some squadrons of 
light cavalry in the Duchy of Burgundy to reinforce 
the Spanish general immediately on his entrance into 
the provinces. The Count of Barlaimont was com- 
missioned to furnished the necessary provision for the 
armament, and a sum of two hundred thousand gold 
florins was remitted to the regent to enable her 
to meet these expenses and to maintain her own 
troops. 

The French court, however, under pretence of the 
danger to be apprehended from the Huguenots, had 
refused to allow the Spanish army to pass through 



276 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

France. Philip applied to the Dukes of Savoy and 
Lorraine, who were too dependent upon him to refuse 
his request. The former merely stipulated that he 
should be allowed to maintain two thousand infantry 
and a squadron of horse at the king's expense in order 
to protect his country from the injuries to which it 
might otherwise be exposed from the passage of the 
Spanish army. At the same time he undertook to 
provide the necessary supplies for its maintenance 
during the transit. 

The rumour of this arrangement roused the Hugue- 
nots, the Genevese, the Swiss, and the Orisons. The 
Prince of Cond^ and the Admiral Coligny entreated 
Charles IX. not to neglect so favourable a moment 
of inflicting a deadly blow on the hereditary foe of 
Prance. With the aid of the Swiss, the Genevese, and 
his own Protestant subjects, it would, they alleged, be 
an easy matter to destroy the flower of the Spanish 
troops in the narrow passes of the Alpine mountains ; 
and they promised to support him in this undertaking 
with an army of fifty thousand HugTienots. This 
advice, however, whose dangerous object was not 
easily to be mistaken, was plausibly declined by 
Charles IX., who assured them that he was both able 
and anxious to provide for the security of his king- 
dom. He hastily despatched troops to cover the 
French frontiers; and the republics of Geneva, Bern, 
Zurich, and the Grisons followed his example, all 
ready to offer a determined opposition to the dreaded 
enemy of their rehgion and their liberty. 

On the 5th of May, 1567, the Duke of Alva set sail 
from Carthagena with thirty galleys, which had been 
furnished by Andrew Doria and the Duke Cosmo of 
Florence, and within eight days landed at Genoa, 
where the four regiments were waiting to join him. 
But a tertian ague, with which he was seized shortly 
after his arrival, compelled him to remain for some 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 277 

days inactive in Lombardy — a delay of which the 
neighbouring powers availed themselves to prepare 
for defence. As soon as the duke recovered he held 
at Asti, in Montferrat, a review of all his troops, who 
were more formidable by their valour than by their 
numbers, since cavalry and infantry together did not 
amount to much above ten thousand men. In his 
long and perilous march he did not wish to encumber 
himself with useless supernumeraries, which would 
only impede his progress and increase the difficulty 
of supporting his army. These ten thousand veterans 
were to form the nucleus of a greater army, which, 
according as circumstances and occasion might re- 
quire, he could easily assemble in the Netherlands 
themselves. 

This army, however, was as select as it was small. 
It consisted of the remains of those victorious legions 
at whose head Charles Y. had made Europe tremble ; 
sanguinary, indomitable bands, in whose battalions the 
firmness of the old Macedonian phalanx lived again; 
rapid in their evolutions from long practice, hardy and 
enduring, proud of their leader's success, and confident 
from past victories, formidable by their licentiousness, 
but still more so by their discipline ; let loose with all 
the passions of a warmer climate upon a rich and 
peaceful country, and inexorable toward an enemy 
whom the Church had cursed. Their fanatical and 
sanguinary spirit, their thirst for glory and innate 
courage, was aided by a rude sensuality, the instrument 
by which the Spanish general firmly and surely ruled 
his otherwise intractable troops. With a prudent in- 
dulgence he allowed riot and voluptuousness to reign 
throughout the camp. Under his tacit connivance 
Italian courtesans followed the standards ; even in the 
march across the Apennines, where the high price of 
the necessaries of life compelled him to reduce his 
force to the smallest possible number, he preferred to 



278 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

have a few regiments less rather than to leave behind 
these instruments of voluptuousness.^ 

But industriously as Alva strove to relax the morals 
of his soldiers, he enforced the more rigidly a strict 
mihtary discipline, which was interrupted only by a 
victory or rendered less severe by a battle. For all 
this he had, he said, the authority of the Athenian 
General Iphicrates, who awarded the prize of valour 
to the pleasure-loving and rapacious soldier. The 
more irksome the restraint by which the passions of 
the soldiers were kept in check, the greater must have 
been the vehemence with which they broke forth at 
the sole outlet which was left open to them. 

The duke divided his infantry, w^hich was about 
nine thousand strong, and chiefly Spaniards, into four 
brigades, and gave the command of them to four Span- 
ish officers. Alphonso of UUoa led the NeapoHtan 
brigade of nine companies, amounting to three thousand 
two hundred and thirty men ; Sancho of Lodogno 
commanded the Milan brigade, three thousand two 
hundred men in ten companies ; the Sicilian brigade, 
with the same number of companies, and consisting of 
sixteen hundred men, was under Juhan Eomero, an 
experienced warrior, who had already fought on Bel- 
gian ground ; ^ while Gonsalo of Braccamonte headed 
that of Sardinia, which was raised by three companies 
of recruits to the full complement of the former. To 
every company, moreover, were added fifteen Spanish 

1 The bacchanalian procession of this army contrasted strangely 
enough with the gloomy seriousness and pretended sanctity of his 
aim. The number of these women was so great that to restrain 
the disorders and quarrelling among themselves they hit upon the 
expedient of establishing a discipline of their own. They ranged 
themselves under particular flags, marched in ranks and sections, 
and in admirable military order, after each battalion, and classed 
themselves with strict etiquette according to their rank and pay. 

2 The same officer who commanded one of the Spanish regi- 
ments about which so much complaint had formerly been made in 
the States-General. 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 279 

musqueteers. The horse, in all twelve hundred strong, 
consisted of three Italian, two Albanian, and seven 
Spanish squadrons, light and heavy cavalry, and the 
chief command was held by Ferdinand and Frederick 
of Toledo, the two sons of Alva. Chiappin Yitelli, 
Marquis of Cetona, was field-marshal, a celebrated 
general whose services had been made over to the 
King of Spain by Cosmo of Florence; and Gabriel 
Serbellon was general of artillery. The Duke of Savoy 
lent Alva an experienced engineer, Francis Pacotto, of 
Urbino, who was to be employed in the erection of new 
fortifications. His standard was likewise followed by 
a number of volunteers, and the flower of the Spanish 
nobility, of whom the greater part had fought under 
Charles Y. in Germany, Italy, and before Tunis. Among 
these were Christopher Mondragone, one of the ten 
Spanish heroes who, near Miihlberg, swam across the 
Elbe with their swords between their teeth, and, under 
a shower of bullets from the enemy, brought over 
from the opposite shore the boats which the emperor 
required for the construction of a bridge ; Sancho of 
Avila, who had been trained to war under Alva him- 
self ; Camillo of Monte, Francis Ferdugo, Karl Davila, 
Nicolaus Basta, and Count Martinego, all fired with a 
noble ardour, either to commence their mihtary career 
under so eminent a leader, or by another glorious cam- 
paign under his command to crown the fame they had 
already won. After the review the army marched in 
three divisions across Mont Cenis, by the very route 
which sixteen centuries before Hannibal is said to have 
taken. The duke himself led the van ; Ferdinand of 
Toledo, with whom was associated Lodogno as colonel, 
the centre ; and the Marquis of Cetona the rear. The 
commissary general, Francis of Ibarra, was sent before 
with General Serbellon to open the road for the main 
body, and get ready the supplies at the several quarters 
for the night. The places which the van left in the 



28o REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

morning were entered in the evening by the centre, 
which in its turn made room on the following day for 
the rear. Thus the army crossed the Alps of Savoy by 
regular stages, and with the fourteenth day completed 
that dangerous passage. A French army of obser- 
vation accompanied it side by side along the frontiers 
of Dauphin^, and the course of the Ehone, and the 
allied army of the Genevese followed it on the right, 
and was passed by it at a distance of seven miles. 
Both these armies of observation carefully abstained 
from any act of hostility, and were merely intended to 
cover their own frontiers. As the Spanish legions 
ascended and descended the steep mountain crags, or 
while they crossed the rapid Iser, or file by file wound 
through the narrow passes of the rocks, a handful 
of men would have been sufficient to put an entire 
stop to their march, and to drive them back into 
the mountains, where they would have been irretriev- 
ably lost, since at each place of encampment supplies 
were provided for no more than a single day, and for a 
third part only of the whole force. But a supernatural 
awe and dread of the Spanish name appeared to have 
blinded the eyes of the enemy so that they did not 
perceive their advantage, or at least did not venture to 
profit by it. In order to give them as little oppor- 
tunity as possible of remembering it, the Spanish 
general hastened through this dangerous pass. Con- 
vinced, too, that if his troops gave the slightest 
umbrage he was lost, the strictest discipline was main- 
tained during the march ; not a single peasant's hut, 
not a single field, was injured ; ^ and never, perhaps, in 



1 Once only, on entering Lorraine, three horsemen ventured to 
drive away a few sheep from a Hock, of which circumstance the 
duke was no sooner informed tlian he sent back to the owner what 
had been taken from him, and sentenced the offenders to be hung. 
This sentence was, at the intercession of the Lorraine general, who 
had come to the frontiers to pay his respects to the duke, exe- 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 281 

the memory of man was so numerous an army led 
so far in such excellent order. Destined as this army 
was for vengeance and murder, a mahgnant and bale- 
ful star seemed to conduct it safe through all dangers ; 
and it would be difficult to decide whether the pru- 
dence of its general or the bhndness of its enemies 
is most to be wondered at. 

In Tranche Comt^, four squadrons of Burgundian 
cavalry, newly raised, joined the main army, which, 
at Luxembourg, was also reinforced by three regiments 
of German infantry under the command of Counts 
Eberstein, Schaumburg, and Lodrona. From Thion- 
ville, where he halted a few days, Alva sent his saluta- 
tions to the regent by Francis of Ibarra, who was, at 
the same time, directed to consult her on the quar- 
tering of the troops. On her part, Noircarmes and 
Barlaimont were despatched to the Spanish camp to 
congratulate the duke on his arrival, and to show him 
the customary marks of honour. At the same time 
they were directed to ask him to produce the powers 
entrusted to him by the king, of which, however, 
he only showed a part. The envoys of the regent 
were followed by swarms of the Flemish nobility, who 
thought they could not hasten soon enough to con= 
ciliate the favour of the new viceroy, or by a timely 
submission avert the vengeance which was preparing. 
Among them was Count Egmont. As he came for- 
ward the duke pointed him out to the bystanders. 
"Here comes an arch-heretic," he exclaimed, loud 
enough to be heard by Egmont himself, who, surprised 
at these words, stopped and changed colour. But 
when the duke, in order to repair his imprudence, 
went up to him with a serene countenance, and greeted 
him with a friendly embrace, the Fleming was ashamed 
of his fears, and made light of this warning, by putting 

cuted on only one of the three, upon whom the lot fell at the 
drum-head. 



282 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

some frivolous interpretation upon it. Egmont sealed 
this new friendship with a present of two valuable 
chargers, which Alva accepted with a grave conde- 
scension. 

Upon the assurance of the regent that the provinces 
were in the enjoyment of perfect peace, and that 
no opposition was to be apprehended from any quarter, 
the duke discharged some German regiments, which 
had hitherto drawn their pay from the Netherlands. 
Three thousand six hundred men, under the command 
of Lodrona, were quartered in Antwerp, from which 
town the Walloon garrison, in which full reliance could 
not be placed, was withdrawn ; garrisons proportion- 
ably stronger were thrown into Ghent and other 
important places ; Alva himself marched with the Milan 
brigade toward Brussels, whither he was accompanied 
by a splendid cortege of the noblest in the land. 

Here, as in all the other towns of the ISTetherlands, 
fear and terror had preceded him, and all who were 
conscious of any offences, and even those who were 
sensible of none, alike awaited his approach with a 
dread similar to that with which criminals see the 
coming of their day of trial. All who could tear 
themselves from the ties of family, property, and coun- 
try had already fled, or now at last took to flight. The 
advance of the Spanish army had already, according 
to the report of the regent, diminished the population 
of the provinces by the loss of one hundred thousand 
citizens, and this general flight still continued. But 
the arrival of the Spanish general could not be more 
hateful to the people of the Netherlands than it was 
distressing and dispiriting to the regent. At last, after 
so many years of anxiety, she had begun to taste the 
sweets of repose, and that absolute authority, which 
had been the long-cherished object of eight years of a 
troubled and difficult administration. This late fruit 
of so much anxious industry, of so many cares and 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 283 

nightly vigils, was now to be wrested from her by 
a stranger, who was to be placed at once in possession 
of all the advantages which she had been forced to ex- 
tract from adverse circumstances, by a long and tedious 
course of intrigue and patient endurance. Another 
was lightly to bear away the prize of promptitude, and 
to triumph by more rapid success over her superior 
but less glittering merits. Since the departure of the 
minister, Granvella, she had tasted to the full the pleas- 
ures of independence. The flattering homage of the 
nobihty, which allowed her more fully to enjoy the 
shadow of power, the more they deprived her of its 
substance, had, by degrees, fostered her vanity to such 
an extent that she at last estranged by her coldness 
even the most upright of all her servants, the state 
counsellor Yiglius, who always addressed her in the 
language of truth. All at once a censor of her actions 
was placed at her side, a partner of her power was 
associated with her, if, indeed, it was not rather a mas- 
ter who was forced upon her, whose proud, stubborn, 
and imperious spirit, which no courtesy could soften, 
threatened the deadliest wounds to her self-love and 
vanity. To prevent his arrival she had, in her rep- 
resentations to the king, vainly exhausted every poht- 
ical argument. To no purpose had she urged that the 
utter ruin of the commerce of the Netherlands would 
be the inevitable consequence of this introduction of 
the Spanish troops ; in vain had she assured the king 
that peace was universally restored, and reminded him 
of her own services in procuring it, which deserved, 
she thought, a better guerdon than to see all the fruits 
of her labours snatched from her and given to a for- 
eigner, and more than all, to behold all the good which 
she had effected destroyed by a new and different line 
of conduct. Even when the duke had already crossed 
Mont Cenis she made one more attempt, entreating 
him at least to diminish his army ; but that also failed, 



284 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

for the duke insisted upon acting up to the powers 
entrusted to him. In poignant grief she now awaited 
his approach, and with the tears she shed for her 
country were mingled those of offended self-love. 

On the 22d of August, 1567, the Duke of Alva 
appeared before the gates of Brussels. His army im- 
mediately took up their quarters in the suburbs, and 
he himself made it his first duty to pay his respects 
to the sister of his king. She gave him a private audi- 
ence on the plea of suffering from sickness. Either 
the mortification she had undergone had in reality a 
serious effect upon her health, or, what is not im- 
probable, she had recourse to this expedient to pain 
his haughty spirit, and in some degree to lessen his 
triumph. He delivered to her letters from the king, 
and laid before her a copy of his own appointment, by 
which the supreme command of the whole military 
force of the Netherlands was committed to him, and 
from which, therefore, it would appear that the ad- 
ministration of civil affairs remained, as heretofore, in 
the hands of the regent. But as soon as he was alone 
with her he produced a new commission, which was 
totally different from the former. According to this, 
the power was delegated to him of making war at his 
discretion, of erecting fortifications, of appointing and 
dismissing at pleasure the governors of provinces, the 
commandants of towns, and other officers of the king ; 
of instituting inquiries into the past troubles, of punish- 
ing those who originated them, and of rewarding the 
loyal. Powers of this extent, which placed him almost 
on a level with a sovereign prince, and far surpassed 
those of the regent herself, caused her the greatest 
consternation, and it was with difficulty that she 
could conceal her emotion. She asked the duke 
whether he had not even a third commission, or some 
special orders in reserve which went still further, and 
were drawn up still more precisely, to which he re- 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 285 

plied distinctly enough in the affirmative, but at the 
same time gave her to understand that this commission 
might be too full to suit the present occasion, and 
would be better brought into play hereafter with due 
regard to time and circumstances. A few days after 
his arrival he caused a copy of the first instructions 
to be laid before the several councils and the states, 
and had them printed to ensure their rapid circulation. 
As the regent resided in the palace, he took up his 
quarters temporarily in Kuilemberg house, the same in 
which the association of the Gueux had received its 
name, and before which, through a wonderful vicissi- 
tude, Spanish tyranny now planted its flag. 

A dead silence reigned in Brussels, broken only at 
times by the unwonted clang of arms. The duke had 
entered the town but a few hours when his attendants, 
like bloodhounds that had been slipped, dispersed 
themselves in all directions. Everywhere foreign faces 
were to be seen ; the streets were empty, all the houses 
carefully closed, all amusements suspended, all pub- 
lic places deserted. The whole metropolis resembled a 
place visited by the plague. Acquaintances hurried 
on without stoppiag for their usual greeting ; all has- 
tened on the moment a Spaniard showed himself in 
the streets. Every sound startled them, as if it were 
the knock of the officials of justice at their doors ; the 
nobihty, in trembling anxiety, kept to their houses ; 
they shunned appearing in public lest their presence 
should remind the new viceroy of some past offence. 
The two nations now seemed to have exchanged char- 
acters. The Spaniard had become the talkative man 
and the Brabanter taciturn; distrust and fear had 
scared away the spirit of cheerfulness and mirth; a 
constrained gravity fettered even the play of the 
features. Every moment the impending blow was 
looked for with dread. 

This general straining of expectation warned the duke 



286 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

to hasten the accomplishment of his plans before they 
should be anticipated by the timely flight of his 
victims. His first object was to secure the suspected 
nobles, in order, at once and for ever, to deprive the 
faction of its leaders, and the nation, whose freedom 
was to be crushed, of all its supporters. By a pre- 
tended affability he had succeeded in lulling their first 
alarm, and in restoring Count Egmont in particular 
to his former perfect confidence, for which purpose 
he artfully employed his sons, Ferdinand and Frederick 
of Toledo, whose companionableness and youth assim- 
ilated more easily with the Flemish character. By 
this skilful advice he succeeded also in enticing Count 
Horn to Brussels, who had hitherto thought it advis- 
able to watch the first measures of the duke from 
a distance, but now suffered himself to be seduced by 
the good fortune of his friend. Some of the nobihty, 
and Count Egmont at the head of them, even resumed 
their former gay style of living. But they themselves 
did not do so with their whole hearts, and they had 
not many imitators. Kuilemberg house was inces- 
santly besieged by a numerous crowd, who thronged 
around the person of the new viceroy, and exhibited 
an affected gaiety on their countenances, while their 
hearts were wrung with distress and fear. Egmont in 
particular assumed the appearance of a light heart, en- 
tertaining the duke's sons, and being feted by them in 
return. Meanwhile, the duke was fearful lest so fair 
an opportunity for the accomphshment of his plans 
might not last long, and lest some act of imprudence 
might destroy the feeling of security which had tempted 
both his victims voluntarily to put themselves into 
his power ; he only waited for a third ; Hogstraten also 
was to be taken in the same net. Under a plausible 
pretext of business he therefore summoned him to 
the metropolis. At the same time that he purposed 
to secure the three counts in Brussels, Colonel Lodrona 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 287 

was to arrest the burgomaster, Strahlen, in Antwerp, 
an intimate Mend of the Prince of Orange, and sus- 
pected of having favoured the Calvinists ; another 
officer was to seize the private secretary of Count 
Egmont, whose name was John Cassembrot von Becker- 
zeel, as also some secretaries of Count Horn, and was 
to possess themselves of their papers. 

When the day arrived which had been fixed upon 
for the execution of this plan, the duke summoned all 
the counsellors and knights before him to confer with 
them upon matters of state. On this occasion the 
Duke of Aerschot, the Counts Mansfeld, Barlaimont, 
and Arenberg attended on the part of the N"ether- 
lands, and on the part of the Spaniards, besides the 
duke's sons, Yitelli, Serbellon, and Ibarra. The young 
Count Mansfeld, who likewise appeared at the meet- 
ing, received a sign from his father to withdraw with 
all speed, and by a hasty flight avoid the fate which 
was impending over him as a former member of the 
Geusen league. The duke purposely prolonged the 
consultation to give time before he acted for the arrival 
of the couriers from Antwerp, who were to bring him 
the tidings of the arrest of the other parties. To avoid 
exciting any suspicion, the engineer, Pacotto, was re- 
quired to attend the meeting to lay before it the plans 
for some fortifications. At last intelhgence was brought 
him that Lodrona had successfully executed his com- 
mission. Upon this the duke dexterously broke off 
the debate and dismissed the council. And now, as 
Count Egmont was about to repair to the apartment 
of Don Ferdinand, to finish a game that he had com- 
menced with him, the captain of the duke's body- 
guard, Sancho D'Avila, stopped him, and demanded 
his sword in the king's name. At the same time he 
was surrounded by a number of Spanish soldiers, who, 
as had been preconcerted, suddenly advanced from 
their concealment. So unexpected a blow deprived 



288 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

Egmont for some moments of all powers of utterance 
and recollection; after awhile, however, he collected 
himself, and taking his sword from his side with digni- 
fied composure, said, as he delivered it into the hands 
of the Spaniard, " This sword has before this on more 
than one occasion successfully defended the king's 
cause." Another Spanish officer arrested Count Horn 
as he was returning to his house without the least 
suspicion of danger. Horn's first inquiry was after 
Egmont. On being told that the same fate had just 
happened to his friend, he surrendered himself without 
resistance. " I have suffered myself to be guided by 
him," he exclaimed, " it is fair that I should share his 
destiny." The two counts were placed in confinement 
in separate apartments. While this was going on in 
the interior of Kuilemberg house the whole garrison 
were drawn out under arms in front of it. No one 
knew what had taken place inside, a mysterious terror 
diffused itself throughout Brussels until rumour spread 
the news of this fatal event. Each felt as if he him- 
self were the sufferer ; with many indignation at Eg- 
mont's blind infatuation preponderated over sympathy 
for his fate ; all rejoiced that Orange had escaped. 
The first question of the Cardinal Granvella, too, when 
these tidings reached him in Rome, is said to have 
been, whether they had taken the Silent One also. On 
being answered in the negative, he shook his head : 
"Then as they have let him escape they have got 
nothing." Fate ordained better for the Count of Hog- 
straten. Compelled by ill health to travel slowly, he 
was met by the report of this event while he was yet 
on his way. He hastily turned back, and fortunately 
escaped destruction. Immediately after Egmont's sei- 
zure a writing was extorted from him, addressed to the 
commandant of the citadel of Ghent, ordering that 
officer to deliver the fortress to the Spanish Colonel 
Alphonso d'UUoa. Upon this the two counts were 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 289 

then (after they had been for some weeks confined in 
Brussels) conveyed under a guard of three thousand 
Spaniards to Ghent, where they remained imprisoned 
till late in the following year. In the meantime all 
their papers had been seized. Many of the first 
nobihty who, by the pretended kindness of the Duke 
of Alva, had allowed themselves to be cajoled into 
remaining experienced the same fate. Capital punish- 
ment was also, without further delay, inflicted on all 
who before the duke's arrival had been taken with 
arms in their hands. Upon the news of Egmont's 
arrest a second body of about twenty thousand in- 
habitants took up the wanderer's staff, beside the one 
hundred thousand who, prudently declining to await 
the arrival of the Spanish general, had already placed 
themselves in safety.^ After so noble a life had been 
assailed no one counted himself safe any longer; but 
many found cause to repent that they had so long 
deferred this salutary step; for every day flight was 
rendered more difficult, for the duke ordered all the 
ports to be closed, and punished the attempt at emi- 
gration with death. The beggars were now esteemed 
fortunate, who had abandoned country and property 
in order to preserve at least their liberty and their 
lives. 

1 A great part of these fugitives helped to strengthen the army 
of the Huguenots, who had taken occasion, from the passage of 
the Spanish army through Lorraine, to assemble their forces, and 
now pressed Charles IX. hard. On these grounds the French 
court thought it had a right to demand aid from the regent of the 
Netherlands. It asserted that the Huguenots had looked upon 
the march of the Spanish army as the result of a preconcerted 
plan which had been formed against them by the two courts at 
Bayonne, and that this had roused them from their slumber. 
That consequently it behooved the Spanish court to assist in 
extricating the French king from difficulties into which the latter 
had been brought simply by the march of the Spanish troops. 
Alva actually sent the Count of Arenberg with a considerable 
force to join the army of the queen mother in France, and even 
offered to command these subsidiaries in person, which, however, 
was declined. (Strada, 206. Thuan, 541.) 



290 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 



ALVA'S FIRST MEASURES, AND DEPARTURE OF THE 
DUCHESS OF PARMA. 

Alva's first step, after securing the most suspected of 
the nobles, was to restore the Inquisition to its former 
authority, to put the decrees of Trent again in force, 
abolish the "moderation^' and promulgate anew the 
edicts against heretics in all their original severity. 
The court of Inquisition in Spain had pronounced the 
whole nation of the Netherlands guilty of treason in 
the highest degree, Cathohcs and heterodox, loyalists 
and rebels, without distinction ; the latter as having 
offended by overt acts, the former as having incurred 
equal guilt by their supineness. From this sweeping 
condemnation a very few were excepted, whose names, 
however, were purposely reserved, while the general 
sentence was publicly confirmed by the king. Philip 
declared himself absolved from all his promises, and 
released from all engagements which the regent in his 
name had entered into with the people of the Nether- 
lands, and all the justice which they had in future to 
expect from him must depend on his own good-will 
and pleasure. All who had aided in the expulsion of 
the minister, Granvella, who had taken part in the 
petition of the confederate nobles, or had but even 
spoken in favour of it ; all who had presented a peti- 
tion against the decrees of Trent, against the edicts 
relating to religion, or against the installation of the 
bishops ; all who had permitted the pubhc preachings, 
or had only feebly resisted them ; all w^ho had worn 
the insignia of the Gueux, had sung Geusen songs, or 
who in any way whatsoever had manifested their joy 
at the establishment of the league ; all who had 
sheltered or concealed the reforming preachers, at- 
tended Calvinistic funerals, or had even merely known 
of their secret meetings, and not given information of 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 291 

them ; all who had appealed to the national privileges ; 
all, in fine, who had expressed an opinion that they 
ought to obey God rather than man; all these indis- 
criminately were declared hable to the penalties which 
the law imposed upon any violation of the royal pre-, 
rogative, and upon high treason; and these penalties 
were, according to the instruction which Alva had 
received, to be executed on the guilty persons without 
forbearance or favour ; without regard to rank, sex, or 
age, as an example to posterity, and for a terror to all 
future times. According to this declaration there was 
no longer an innocent person to be found in the whole 
Netherlands, and the new viceroy had it in his power 
to make a fearful choice of victims. Property and life 
were ahke at his command, and whoever should have 
the good fortune to preserve one or both must receive 
them as the gift of his generosity and humanity. By 
this stroke of pohcy, as refined as it was detestable, the 
nation was disarmed, and unanimity rendered impos- 
sible. As it absolutely depended on the duke's arbi- 
trary will upon whom the sentence should be carried 
in force which had been passed without exception upon 
all, each individual kept himself quiet, in order to 
escape, if possible, the notice of the viceroy, and to 
avoid drawing the fatal choice upon himself. Every 
one, on the other hand, in whose favour he was pleased 
to make an exception stood in a degree indebted to 
him, and was personally under an obligation which 
must be measured by the value he set upon his life 
and property. As, however, this penalty could only be 
executed on the smaller portion of the nation, the duke 
naturally secured the greater by the strongest ties of 
fear and gratitude, and for one whom he sought out as 
a victim he gained ten others whom he passed over. 
As long as he continued true to this policy he remained 
in quiet possession of his rule, even amid the streams 
of blood which he caused to flow, and did not forfeit 



292 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

this advantage till the want of money compelled him 
to impose a burden upon the nation which oppressed 
all indiscriminately. 

In order to be equal to this bloody occupation, the 
details of which were fast accumulating, and to be cer- 
tain of not losing a single victim through the want of 
instruments ; and, on the other hand, to render his 
proceedings independent of the states, with whose 
privileges they were so much at variance, and who, 
indeed, were far too humane for him, he instituted an 
extraordinary court of justice. This court consisted of 
twelve criminal judges, who, according to their in- 
structions, to the very letter of which they must 
adhere, were to try and pronounce sentence upon those 
implicated in the past disturbances. The mere institu- 
tion of such a board was a violation of the liberties of 
the country, which expressly stipulated that no citizen 
should be tried out of his own province ; but the duke 
filled up the measure of his injustice when, contrary to 
the most sacred privileges of the nation, he proceeded 
to give seats and votes in that court to Spaniards, the 
open and avowed enemies of Belgian hberty. He him- 
self was the president of this court, and after him a 
certain licentiate, Vargas, a Spaniard by birth, of whose 
iniquitous character the historians of both parties are 
unanimous ; cast out like a plague-spot from his own 
country, where he had violated one of his wards, he 
was a shameless, hardened villain, in whose mind 
avarice, lust, and the thirst for blood struggled for 
ascendency. The principal members were Count 
Arenberg, Philip of Noircarmes, and Charles of Barlai- 
mont, who, however, never sat in it ; Hadrian Nicolai, 
chancellor of Guelders ; Jacob Mertens, and Peter 
Asset, presidents of Artois and Flanders ; Jacob Hes- 
selts and John de la Porte, counsellors of Ghent ; 
Louis del Rio, doctor of theology, and by birth a Span- 
iard ; John du Bois, king's advocate ; and De la Torre, 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 293 

secretary of the court. In compliance with the repre- 
sentations of Viglius the privy council was spared any 
part in this tribunal ; nor was any one introduced into 
it from the great council at Malines. The votes of the 
members were only recommendatory, not conclusive, 
the final sentence being reserved by the duke to him- 
self. No particular time was fixed for the sitting of 
the court ; the members, however, assembled at noon, 
as often as the duke thought good. But after the 
expiration of the third month Alva began to be less 
frequent in his attendance, and at last resigned his 
place entirely to his favourite, Vargas, who filled it 
with such odious fitness that in a short time all the 
members, with the exception merely of the Spanish 
doctor, Del Kio, and the secretary, De la Torre,^ weary 
of the atrocities of which they were compelled to be 
both eye-witnesses and accomplices, remained away 
from the assembly. It is revolting to the feelings to 
think how the lives of the noblest and best were thus 
placed at the mercy of Spanish vagabonds, and how 
even the sanctuaries of the nation, its deeds and 
charters, were unscrupulously ransacked, the seals 
broken, and the most secret contracts between the 
sovereign and the state profaned and exposed.^ 



1 The sentences passed upon the most eminent persons (for 
example, the sentence of death passed upon Strahlen, the burgo- 
master of Antwerp) were signed only by Vargas, Del Kio, and De 
la Torre, 

2 Tor an example of the unfeeling levity with which the most 
important matters, even decisions in cases of life and death, were 
treated in this sanguinary council, it may serve to relate what is 
told of the Counsellor Hesselts. He was generally asleep during 
the meeting, and when his turn came to vote on a sentence of 
death he used to cry out, still half asleep: " Ad patibulum ! Ad 
patibulum! " so glibly did his tongue utter this word. It is further 
to be remarked of this Hesselts, that his wife, a daughter of the 
President Viglius, had expressly stipulated in the marriage con- 
tract that he should resign the dismal office of attorney for the 
king, which made him detested by the whole nation. — Vigl. ad 
Hopp. Ixvii., L. 



294 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

From the council of twelve (which, from the object 
of its institution, was called the council for disturb- 
ances, but on account of its proceedings is more gener- 
ally known under the appellation of the council of 
blood, a name which the nation in their exasperation 
bestowed upon it), no appeal was allowed. Its pro- 
ceedings could not be revised. Its verdicts were irrev- 
ocable and independent of all other authority. No 
other tribunal in the country could take cognisance 
of cases which related to the late insurrection, so that 
in all the other courts justice was nearly at a stand- 
still. The great council at Mahnes was as good as 
aboHshed; the authority of the Council of State en- 
tirely ceased, insomuch that its sittings were discon- 
tinued. On some rare occasions the duke conferred 
with a few members of the late assembly, but even 
when this did occur the conference was held in his 
cabinet, and was no more than a private consultation, 
without any of the proper forms being observed. No 
privilege, no charter of immunity, however carefully 
protected, had any weight with the council for dis- 
turbances.^ It compelled all deeds and contracts to 
be laid before it, and often forced upon them the most 
strained interpretations and alterations. If the duke 
caused a sentence to be drawn out which there was 
reason to fear might be opposed by the states of 
Brabant, it was legalised without the Brabant seaL 
The most sacred rights of individuals were assailed, 
and a tyranny without example forced its arbitrary 
will even into the circle of domestic Hfe. As the Prot- 
estants and rebels had hitherto contrived to strengthen 
their party so much by marriages with the first families 
in the country, the duke issued an edict forbidding all 

1 Vargas, in a few words of barbarous Latin, demolished at 
once the boasted liberties of the Netherlands. " Non curamus 
vestros privilegios," he replied to one who wished to plead the 
immunities of the University of Louvain. 




L N-s-»^--, 







lings is m- 
of th* 

verdicts were in 
authority. !>-■ 

iy at a stand- 

as 



.nn. t\ 



Sitting of the Blood Council. 

Photogravure from the painting by Ch. Soubre. 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 295 

Netherlanders, whatever might be their rank or officey 
Tinder pain of death and confiscation of property, to 
conclude a marriage without previously obtaining his 
permission. 

All whom the council for disturbances thought 
proper to summon before it were compelled to appear, 
clergy as well as laity; the most venerable heads of 
the senate, as well as the reprobate rabble of the 
Iconoclasts. Whoever did not present himself, as 
indeed scarcely anybody did, was declared an outlaw, 
and his property was confiscated ; but those who were 
rash or foolish enough to appear, or who were so 
unfortunate as to be seized, were lost without redemp- 
tion. Twenty, forty, often fifty were summoned at 
the same time and from the same town, and the 
richest were always the first on whom the thunderbolt 
descended. The meaner citizens, who possessed noth- 
ing that could render their country and their homes 
dear to them, were taken unawares and arrested with- 
out any previous citation. Many eminent merchants, 
who had at their disposal fortunes of from sixty 
thousand to one hundred thousand florins, were seen 
with their hands tied behind their backs, dragged like 
common vagabonds at the horse's tail to execution, 
and in Valenciennes fifty-five persons were decapitated 
at one time. All the prisons — and the duke immedi- 
ately on commencing his administration had built a 
great number of them — were crammed full with the 
accused ; hanging, beheading, quartering, burning, were 
the prevailing and ordinary occupations of the day; 
the punishment of the galleys and banishment were 
more rarely heard of, for there was scarcely any offence 
which Was reckoned too trival to be punished with 
death. Immense sums were thus brought into the 
treasury, which, however, served rather to stimulate 
the new viceroy's and his colleagues' thirst for gold 
than to quench it. It seemed to be his insane pur- 



296 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

pose to make beggars of the whole people, and to 
throw all their riches into the hands of the king and 
his servants. The yearly income derived from these 
confiscations was computed to equal the revenues of 
the first kingdoms of Europe ; it is said to have been 
estimated, in a report furnished to the king, at the 
incredible amount of twenty milUon of dollars. But 
these proceedings were the more inhuman, as they 
often bore hardest precisely upon the very persons who 
were the most peaceful subjects and most orthodox Eo- 
man Catholics, whom they could not want to injure. 
Whenever an estate was confiscated all the creditors 
who had claims upon it were defrauded. The hospi- 
tals, too, and public institutions, which such proper- 
ties had contributed to support, were now ruined, and 
the poor, who had formerly drawn a pittance from this 
source, were compelled to see their only spring of com- 
fort dried up. Whoever ventured to urge their well- 
grounded claims on the forfeited property before the 
council of twelve (for no other tribunal dared to inter- 
fere vdth these inquiries), consumed their substance in 
tedious and expensive proceedings, and were reduced 
to beggary before they saw the end of them. The 
histories of civihsed states furnish but one instance 
of a similar perversion of justice, of such violation of 
the rights of property, and of such waste of human 
life ; but Cinna, Sylla, and Marius entered vanquished 
Rome as incensed victors, and practised without dis- 
guise what the viceroy of the Netherlands performed 
under the venerable veil of the laws. 

Up to the end of the year 1567 the king's arrival 
had been confidently expected, and the well-disposed 
of 'the people had placed all their last hopes on this 
event. The vessels, which Philip had caused to be 
equipped expressly for the purpose of meeting him, 
still lay in the harbour of Flushing, ready to sail at 
the first signal; and the town of Brussels had con- 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 297 

sented to receive a Spanish garrison, simply because 
the king, it was pretended, was to reside within its 
walls. But this hope gradually vanished, as he put 
off the journey from one season to the next, and the 
new viceroy very soon began to exhibit powers which 
announced him less as a precursor of royalty than as 
an absolute minister, whose presence made that of the 
monarch entirely superfluous. To complete the dis- 
tress of the provinces their last good angel was now 
to leave them in the person of the regent. 

From the moment when the production of the 
duke's extensive powers left no doubt remaining as 
to the practical termination of her own rule, Margaret 
had formed the resolution of relinquishing the name 
also of regent. To see a successor in the actual pos- 
session of a dignity which a nine years' enjoyment had 
made indispensable to her; to see the authority, the 
glory, the splendour, the adoration, and all the marks 
of respect, which are the usual concomitants of su- 
preme power, pass over to another ; and to feel that 
she had lost that which she could never forget she 
had once held, was more than a woman's mind could 
endure ; moreover, the Duke of Alva was of all men 
the least calculated to make her feel her privation the 
less painful by a forbearing use of his newly acquired 
dignity. The tranquillity of the country, too, which 
was put in jeopardy by this divided rule, seemed to 
impose upon the duchess the necessity of abdicating. 
Many governors of provinces refused, without an ex- 
press order from the court, to receive commands from 
the duke and to recognise him as co-regent. 

The rapid change of their point of attraction could 
not be met by the courtiers so composedly and imper- 
turbably but that the duchess observed the alteration, 
and bitterly felt it. Even the few who, like State 
Counsellor Viglius, still firmly adhered to her, did so 
less from attachment to her person than from vexation 



298 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

at being displaced by novices and foreigners, and from 
being too proud to serve a fresh apprenticeship under 
a new viceroy. But far the greater number, with all 
their endeavours to keep an exact mean, could not help 
making a difference between the homage they paid to 
the rising sun and that which they bestowed on the 
setting luminary. The royal palace in Brussels be- 
came more and more deserted, while the throng at 
Kuilemberg house daily increased. But what wounded 
the sensitiveness of the duchess most acutely was the 
arrest of Horn and Egmont, which was planned and 
executed by the duke without her knowledge or con- 
sent, just as if there had been no such person as her- 
self in existence. Alva did, indeed, after the act was 
done, endeavour to appease her by declaring that the 
design had been purposely kept secret from her in 
order to spare her name from being mixed up in 
so odious a transaction ; but no such considerations 
of delicacy could close the wound which had been 
inflicted on her pride. In order at once to escape all 
risk of similar insults, of which the present was 
probably only a forerunner, she despatched her private 
secretary, Macchiavell, to the court of her brother, 
there to solicit earnestly for permission to resign the 
regency. The request was granted without difficulty 
by the king, who accompanied his consent with every 
mark of his highest esteem. He would put aside (so 
the king expressed himself) his own advantage and 
that of the provinces in order to oblige his sister. He 
sent a present of thirty thousand dollars, and allotted 
to her a yearly pension of twenty thousand.^ At the 

1 Which, however, does not appear to have been very punctu- 
ally paid, if a pamphlet may be trusted which was printed during 
her lifetime. (It bears the title, "Discours sur la Blessure de 
Monseigneur Prince d' Orange, 1582," without notice of the place 
where it was printed, and is to be found in the Elector's library 
at Dresden.) She languished, it is there stated, at Namur in pov- 
erty, and so ill-supported by her son (the then governor of the 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 299 

same time a diploma was forwarded to the Duke of 
Alvaj constituting him, in her stead, viceroy of all the 
Netherlands, with unlimited powers. 

Gladly would Margaret have learned that she was 
permitted to resign the regency before a solemn assem- 
bly of the states, a wish which she had not very 
obscurely hinted to the king. But she was not grati- 
fied. She was particularly fond of solemnity, and the 
example of the emperor, her father, who had exhibited 
the extraordinary spectacle of his abdication of the 
crown in this very city, seemed to have great attrac- 
tions for her. As she was compelled to part with 
supreme power, she could scarcely be blamed for wish- 
ing to do so with as much splendour as possible. 
Moreover, she had not failed to observe how much the 
general hatred of the duke had effected in her own 
favour, and she looked, therefore, the more wistfully 
forward to a scene, which promised to be at once so 
flattering to her and so affecting. She would have 
been glad to mingle her own tears with those which 
she hoped to see shed by the Netherlanders for their 
good regent. Thus the bitterness of her descent fi'om 
the throne would have been alleviated by the expres- 
sion of general sympathy. Little as she had done to 
merit the general esteem during the nine years of her 
administration, while fortune smiled upon her, and the 
approbation of her sovereign was the limit to all her 
wishes, yet now the sympathy of the nation had 
acquired a value in her eyes as the only thing which 
could in some degree compensate to her for the disap- 
pointment of all her other hopes. Fain would she 
have persuaded herself that she had become a volun- 
tary sacrifice to her goodness of heart and her too 

Netherlands), that her own secretary, Aldrobandin, called her 
sojourn there an exile. But the writer goes on to ask what 
better treatment could she expect from a son who, when still 
very young, being on a visit to her at Brussels, snapped his fingers 
at her behind her back. 



300 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

humane feelings toward the Netherlanders. As, how- 
ever, the king was very far from being disposed to incur 
any danger by calling a general assembly of the states, 
in order to gratify a mere caprice of his sister, she was 
obhged to content herself with a farewell letter to 
them. In this document she went over her whole 
administration, recounted, not without ostentation, the 
difficulties with which she had had to struggle, the 
evils which, by her dexterity, she had prevented, and 
wound up at last by saying that she left a finished 
work, and had to transfer to her successor nothing but 
the punishment of offenders. The king, too, was re- 
peatedly compelled to hear the same statement, and 
she left nothing undone to arrogate to herself the glory 
of any future advantages which it might be the good 
fortune of the duke to realise. Her own merits, as 
something which did not admit of a doubt, but was at 
the same time a burden oppressive to her modesty, she 
laid at the feet of the king. 

Dispassionate posterity may, nevertheless, hesitate to 
subscribe unreservedly to this favourable opinion. Even 
though the united voice of her contemporaries and the 
testimony of the Netherlands themselves vouch for it, a 
third party will not be denied the right to examine her 
claims with stricter scrutiny. The popular mind, easily 
affected, is but too ready to count the absence of a vice 
as an additional virtue, and, under the pressure of exist- 
ing evil, to give excess of praise for past benefits. The 
Netherlander seems to have concentrated all his hatred 
upon the Spanish name. To lay the blame of the 
national evils on the regent would tend to remove from 
the king and his minister the curses which he would 
rather shower upon them alone and undividedly ; and 
the Duke of Alva's government of the Netherlands w^as, 
perhaps, not the proper point of view from which to 
test the merits of his predecessor. It was undoubtedly 
no Light task to meet the king's expectations without 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 301 

infringing the rights of the people and the duties of 
humanity ; but in struggling to effect these two con- 
tradictory objects Margaret had accomphshed neither. 
She had deeply injured the nation, while comparatively 
she had done little service to the king. It is true that 
she at last crushed the Protestant faction, but the acci- 
dental outbreak of the Iconoclasts assisted her in this 
more than all her dexterity. She certainly succeeded 
by her intrigues in dissolving the league of the nobles, 
but not until the first blow had been struck at its roots 
by internal dissensions. The object, to secure which 
she had for many years vainly exhausted her whole 
pohcy, was effected at last by a single enhstment of 
troops, for which, however, the orders were issued from 
Madrid. She delivered to the duke, no doubt, a tran- 
quillised country ; but it cannot be denied that the 
dread of his approach had the chief share in tran- 
quillising it. By her reports she led the council in 
Spain astray ; because she never informed it of the dis- 
ease, but only of the occasional symptoms ; never of 
the universal feeling and voice of the nation, but only 
of the misconduct of factions. Her faulty administra- 
tion, moreover, drew the people into the crime, because 
she exasperated without sufficiently aweing them. She 
it was that brought the murderous Alva into the coun- 
try by leading the king to believe that the disturbances 
in the provinces were to be ascribed, not so much to the 
severity of the royal ordinances, as to the unworthiness 
of those who were charged with their execution. Mar- 
garet possessed natural capacity and intellect ; and an 
acquired political tact enabled her to meet any ordi- 
nary case ; but she wanted that creative genius which, 
for new and extraordinary emergencies, invents new 
maxims, or wisely oversteps old ones. In a country 
where honesty was the best pohcy, she adopted the 
unfortunate plan of practising her insidious Itahan 
policy, and thereby sowed the seeds of a fatal distrust 



302 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

in the minds of the people. The indulgence which has 
been so liberally imputed to her as a merit was, in 
truth, extorted from her weakness and timidity by the 
courageous opposition of the nation; she had never 
departed from the strict letter of the royal commands 
by her own spontaneous resolution ; never did the gentle 
feehngs of innate humanity lead her to misinterpret the 
cruel purport of her instructions. Even the few con- 
cessions to which necessity compelled her were granted 
with an uncertain and shrinking hand, as if fearing to 
give too much ; and she lost the fruit of her benefac- 
tions because she mutilated them by a sordid closeness. 
What in all the other relations of her life she was too 
little, she was on the throne too much — a woman ! 
She had it in her power, after Granvella's expulsion, to 
become the benefactress of the Belgian nation, but she 
did not. Her supreme good was the approbation of 
her king, her greatest misfortune his displeasure ; with 
all the eminent qualities of her mind she remained an 
ordinary character because her heart was destitute of 
native nobility. She used a melancholy power with 
much moderation, and stained her government with no 
deed of arbitrary cruelty ; nay, if it had depended on 
her, she would have always acted humanely. Years 
afterward, when her idol, Philip II., had long forgotten 
her, the Netherlanders still honoured her memory ; 
but she was far from deserving the glory which her 
successor's inhumanity reflected upon her. 

She left Brussels about the end of December, 1567. 
The duke escorted her as far as the frontiers of Bra- 
bant, and there left her under the protection of Count 
Mansfeld in order to hasten back to the metropolis 
and show himself to the Netherlanders as sole regent. 



TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF COUNTS 
EGMONT AND HORN. 

The two counts were a few weeks after their arrest 
conveyed to Ghent under an escort of three thousand 
Spaniards, where they were confined in the citadel for 
more than eight months. Their trial commenced in 
due form before the council of twelve, and the solicitor- 
general, John du Bois, conducted the proceedings. 
The indictment against Egmont consisted of ninety 
counts, and that against Horn of sixty. It would oc- 
cupy too much space to introduce them here. Every 
action, however innocent, every omission of duty, was 
interpreted on the principle which had been laid down 
in the opening of the indictment, " that the two counts, 
in conjunction with the Prince of Orange, had planned 
the overthrow of the royal authority in the Netherlands, 
and the usurpation of the government of the country ; " 
the expulsion of Granvella ; the embassy of Egmont to 
Madrid ; the confederacy of the Gueux ; the conces- 
sions which they made to the Protestants in the 
provinces under their government — all were made 
to have a connection with, and reference to, this delib- 
erate design. Thus importance was attached to the 
most insignificant occurrences, and one action made to 
darken and discolour another. By taking care to treat 
each of the charges as in itself a treasonable offence it 
was the more easy to justify a sentence of high treason 
by the whole. 

The accusations were sent to each of the prisoners, 
who were required to reply to them within five days. 
After doing so they were allowed to employ solicitors 

303 



304 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

and advocates, who were permitted free access to them ; 
but as they were accused of treason their friends were 
prohibited from \'isiting them. Count Egmont em- 
ployed for his solicitor Yon Landas, and made choice 
of a few eminent advocates from Brussels. 

The first step was to demur against the tribunal 
which was to try them, since by the pri^ilege of their 
order they, as knights of the Golden Fleece, were 
amenable only to the king himseh, the grand master. 
But this demurrer was overruled, and thev were re- 
quired to produce their witnesses, in default of which 
they were to be proceeded against i)i contumaciam. 
Egmont had satisfactorily answered to eighty-two 
counts, while Count Horn had refuted the charges 
against him, article by article. The accusation and 
the defence are still extant ; on that defence every 
impartial tribunal would have acquitted them both. 
The procurator fiscal pressed for the production of 
their emience, and the Duke of Alva issued his re- 
peated commands to use despatch. They delayed, 
however, from week to week, while they renewed their 
protests against the illegality of the court. At last the 
duke assigned them nine days to produce their proofs ; 
on the lapse of that period they were to be declared 
guilty, and as having forfeited all right of defence. 

During the progi-ess of the trial the relations and 
friends of the two counts were not idle. Egmont's 
wife, by birth a duchess of Bavaria, addressed petitions 
to the princes of the German empire, to the emperor, 
and to the King of Spain. The Countess Horn, mother 
of the imprisoned count, who was connected by the 
ties of friendship or of blood with the principal royal 
famihes of Germany, did the same. All alike protested 
loudly against this illegal proceeding, and appealed to 
the liberty of the German empire, on which Horn, as 
a count of the empire, had special claims ; the hberty 
of the Netherlands and the pri^ileges of the Order of 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 305 

the Golden Fleece were likewise insisted upon. The 
Countess Egmont succeeded in obtaining the interces- 
sion of almost every German court in behalf of her 
husband. The King of Spain and his viceroy were 
besieged by applications in behalf of the accused, which 
were referred from one to the other, and made light of 
by both. Countess Horn collected certificates from all 
the knights of the Golden Fleece in Spain, Germany, 
and Italy to prove the privileges of the order. Alva 
rejected them with a declaration that they had no 
force in such a case as the present. " The crimes of 
which the counts are accused relate to the affairs of the 
Belgian provinces, and he, the duke, was appointed by 
the king sole judge of all matters connected with those 
countries." 

Four months had been allowed to the solicitor-gen- 
eral to draw up the indictment, and five were granted 
to the two counts to prepare for their defence. But 
instead of losing their time and trouble in adducing 
their evidence, which, perhaps, would have profited 
them but httle, they preferred wasting it in protests 
against the judges, which availed them still less. By 
the former course they would probably have delayed 
the final sentence, and in the time thus gained the 
powerful intercession of their friends might perhaps 
have not been ineffectual. By obstinately persisting 
in denying the competency of the tribunal which was 
to try them, they furnished the duke with an excuse 
for cutting short the proceedings. After the last 
assigned period had expired, on the 1st of June, 1658, 
the council of twelve declared them guilty, and on the 
4th of that month sentence of death was pronounced 
against them. 

The execution of twenty-five noble Netherlanders, 
who were beheaded in three successive days in the mar- 
ket-place at Brussels, was the terrible prelude to the fate 
of the two counts. John Cassembrot von Beckerzeel,. 



3o6 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

secretary to Count Egmont, was one of the unfortu- 
nates, who was thus rewarded for his fidelity to his 
master, which he steadfastly maintained even upon 
the rack, and for his zeal in the service of the king, 
which he had manifested against the Iconoclasts. The 
others had either been taken prisoners, with arms in 
their hands, in the insurrection of the "Gueux," or 
apprehended and condemned as traitors on account 
of having taken a part in the petition of the nobles. 

The duke had reason to hasten the execution of the 
sentence. Count Louis of Nassau had given battle to 
the Count of Arenberg, near the monastery of Heili- 
gerlee, in Groningen, and had the good fortune to 
defeat him. Immediately after his victory he had 
advanced against Groningen, and laid siege to it. The 
success of his arms had raised the courage of his fac- 
tion ; and the Prince of Orange, his brother, was close 
at hand with an army to support him. These circum- 
stances made the duke's presence necessary in those 
distant provinces ; but he could not venture to leave 
Brussels before the fate of two such important prisoners 
was decided. The whole nation loved them, which 
was not a little increased by their unhappy fate. Even 
the strict papists disapproved of the execution of these 
eminent nobles. The slightest advantage which the 
arms of the rebels might gain over the duke, or even 
the report of a defeat, would cause a revolution in 
Brussels, which would immediately set the two counts 
at hberty. Moreover, the petitions and intercessions 
which came to the viceroy, as well as to the King of 
Spain, from the German princes, increased daily ; nay, 
the emperor, Maximilian II., himself caused the count- 
ess to be assured " that she had nothing to fear for the 
life of her spouse." These powerful applications might 
at last turn the king's heart in favour of the prisoners. 
The king, might, perhaps, in reliance on his viceroy's 
usual despatch, put on the appearance of yielding to 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 307 

the representations of so many sovereigns, and rescind 
the sentence of death under the conviction that his 
mercy would come too late. These considerations 
moved the duke not to delay the execution of the sen- 
tence as soon as it was pronounced. 

On the day after the sentence was passed the two 
counts were brought, under an escort of three thousand 
Spaniards, from Ghent to Brussels, and placed in con- 
finement in the Brodhausej in the great market-place. 
The next morning the council of twelve were assem- 
bled; the duke, contrary to his custom, attended in 
person, and both the sentences, in sealed envelopes, 
were opened and publicly read by Secretary Pranz. 
The two counts were declared guilty of treason, as hav- 
ing favoured and promoted the abominable conspiracy 
of the Prince of Orange, protected the confederated 
nobles, and been convicted of various misdemeanours 
against their king and the Church in their governments 
and other appointments. Both were sentenced to be 
publicly beheaded, and their heads were to be fixed 
upon pikes and not taken down without the duke's 
express command. All their possessions, fiefs, and 
rights escheated to the royal treasury. The sentence 
was signed only by the duke and the secretary, Pranz, 
without asking or caring for the consent of the other 
members of the council. 

During the night between the 4th and 5th of June 
the sentences were brought to the prisoners, after they 
had already gone to rest. The duke gave them to 
the Bishop of Ypres, Martin Eithov, whom he had 
expressly summoned to Brussels to prepare the pris- 
oners for death. When the bishop received this com- 
mission he threw himself at the feet of the duke, and 
supplicated him with tears in his eyes for mercy, at 
least for respite for the prisoners ; but he was answered 
in a rough and angry voice that he had been sent for 
from Ypres, not to oppose the sentence, but by his 



3o8 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

spiritual consolation to reconcile the unhappy noble- 
men to it. 

Egmont was the first to whom the bishop communi- 
cated the sentence of death. " That is indeed a severe 
sentence," exclaimed the count, turning pale, and with 
a faltering voice. " I did not think that I had offended 
his Majesty so deeply as to deserve such treatment. 
If, however, it must be so, I submit to my fate with 
resignation. May this death atone for my offence, 
and save my wife and children from suffering. This 
at least I think I may claim for my past services. 
As for death, I will meet it with composure, since it 
so pleases God and my king." He then pressed the 
bishop to tell him seriously and candidly if there was 
no hope of pardon. Being answered in the negative, 
he confessed and received the sacrament from the 
priest, repeating after him the mass with great devout- 
ness. He asked what prayer was the best and most 
effective to recommend him to God in his last hour. 
On being told that no prayer could be more effectual 
than the one which Christ himself had taught, he 
prepared immediately to repeat the Lord's prayer. 
The thoughts of his family interrupted him ; he called 
for pen and ink, and wrote two letters, one to his wife, 
the other to the king. The latter was as follows : 

" Sire : — This morning I have heard the sentence 
which your Majesty has been pleased to pass upon me. 
Far as I have ever been from attempting anything against 
the person or service of your Majesty, or against the 
true, old, and Catholic religion, I yet submit myself 
with patience to the fate which it has pleased God to 
ordain I should suffer. If, during the past disturb- 
ances, I have omitted, advised, or done anything that 
seems at variance with my duty, it was most assuredly 
performed with the best intentions, or was forced upon 
me by the pressure of circumstances. I therefore pray 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 309 

your Majesty to forgive me, and, in consideration of 
my past services, show mercy to my unhappy wife, my 
poor children, and servants. In a firm hope of this, 
I commend myself to the infinite mercy of God. 
" Tour Majesty's most faithful vassal and servant, 

"La^ioeal Couxt Egmoxt. 

" Brussels, June 5, 1568, near my last moments." 

This letter he placed in the hands of the bishop, — 
with the strongest injunctions for its safe dehvery ; 
and for gi-eater security he sent a duphcate in his own 
handwriting to State Counsellor Yighus, the most 
upright man in the senate, by whom, there is no doubt, 
it was actually dehvered to the king. The family of 
the count were subsequently reinstated in all his prop- 
erty, fiefs, and rights, which, by virtue of the sentence, 
had escheated to the royal treasuiy. 

Meanwhile a scafi'old had been erected in the mar- 
ket-place, before the town hall, on which two poles 
were fixed with iron spikes, and the whole covered 
with black cloth. Two and twenty companies of the 
Spanish garrison suiTOunded the scaffold, a precaution 
which was by no means supei-fluous. Between ten 
and eleven o'clock the Spanish guard appeared in the 
apartment of the count ; they were provided with cords 
to tie his hands according to custom. He begged that 
this might be spared him, and declared that he was 
willing and ready to die. He himself cut off the 
collar from his doublet to facihtate the executioner's 
duty. He wore a robe of red damask, and over that a 
black Spanish cloak trimmed with gold lace. In this 
dress he appeared on the scaffold, and was attended by 
Don Julian Eomero, maitre-de-camp ; Salinas, a Spanish 
captain ; and the Bishop of Ypres. The grand provost 
of the court, with a red wand in his hand, sat on horse- 
back at the foot of the scaffold ; the executioner was 
concealed beneath- 



3IO REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

Egmont had at first shown a desire to address the 
people from the scaffold. He desisted, however, on 
the bishop's representing to him that either he would 
not be heard, or that if he were, he might — such at 
present was the dangerous disposition of the people — 
excite them to acts of violence, which would only 
plunge his friends into destruction. For a few moments 
he paced the scaffold with noble dignity, and lamented 
that it had not been permitted him to die a more 
honourable death for his king and his country. Up 
to the last he seemed unable to persuade himself that 
the king was in earnest, and that his severity would 
be carried any further than the mere terror of execu- 
tion. When the decisive period approached, and he 
was to receive the extreme unction, he looked wistfully 
around, and when there still appeared no prospect of 
a reprieve, he turned to Julian Eomero, and asked him 
once more if there was no hope of pardon for him. 
Julian Romero shrugged his shoulders, looked on the 
ground, and was silent. 

He then closely clenched his teeth, threw off his 
mantle and robe, knelt upon the cushion, and prepared 
himself for the last prayer. The bishop presented him 
the crucifix to kiss, and administered to him extreme 
unction, upon which the count made him a sign to 
leave him. He drew a silk cap over his eyes, and 
awaited the stroke. Over the corpse and the stream- 
ing blood a black cloth was immediately thrown. 

All Brussels thronged around the scaffold, and the 
fatal blow seemed to fall on every heart. Loud sobs 
alone broke the appalHng silence. The duke himself, 
who watched the execution from a window of the 
town-house, wiped his eyes as his victim died. 

Shortly afterward Count Horn advanced on the scaf- 
fold. Of a more violent temperament than his friend, 
and stimulated by stronger reasons for hatred against 
the king, he had received the sentence with less com- 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 311 

posure, although in his case, perhaps, it was less unjust. 
He burst forth in hitter reproaches against the king, 
and the bishop with difficulty prevailed upon him to 
make a better use of his last moments than to abuse 
them in imprecations on his enemies. At last, how- 
ever, he became more collected, and made his confes- 
sion to the bishop, which at first he was disposed to 
refuse. 

He mounted the scaffold with the same attendants 
as his friend. In passing he saluted many of his ac- 
quaintances; his hands were, like Egmont's, free, and 
he was dressed in -a black doublet and cloak, with a 
Milan cap of the same colour upon his head. When 
he had ascended, he cast his eyes upon the corpse, 
which lay under the cloth, and asked one of the by- 
standers if it was the body of his friend. On being 
answered in the affirmative, he said some words in 
Spanish, threw his cloak from him, and knelt upon 
the cushion. All shrieked aloud as he received the 
fatal blow. 

The heads of both were fixed upon the poles which 
were set up on the scaffold, where they remained until 
past three in the afternoon, when they were taken 
down, and, with the two bodies, placed in leaden 
coffins and deposited in a vault. 

In spite of the number of spies and executioners 
who surrounded the scaffold, the citizens of Brussels 
would not be prevented from dipping their handker- 
chiefs in the streaming blood, and carrying home with 
them these precious memorials. 



SIEGE OF ANTATOEP BY THE PEINCE OF 
PAEMA, m THE YEAES 1584 AND 1585. 

It is an interesting spectacle to observe the struggle 
of man's inventive genius in conflict with powerful 
opposing elements, and to see the difficulties which are 
insurmountable to ordinary capacities overcome by pru- 
dence, resolution, and a determined will. Less attract- 
ive, but only the more instructive, perhaps, is the 
contrary spectacle, where the absence of those qualities 
renders all efforts of genius vain, throws away all the 
favours of fortune, and where inability to improve such 
advantages renders hopeless a success which otherwise 
seemed sure and inevitable. Examples of both kinds 
are afforded by the celebrated siege of Antwerp by the 
Spaniards toward the close of the sixteenth century, 
by which that flourishing city was for ever deprived of 
its commercial prosperity, . but which, on the other 
hand, conferred immortal fame on the general who 
undertook and accomphshed it. 

Twelve years had the war continued which the 
northern provinces of Belgium had commenced at first 
in vindication simply of their rehgious freedom, and 
the privileges of their states, from the encroachments 
of the Spanish viceroy, but maintained latterly in the 
hope of estabhshing their independence of the Spanish 
crown. Never completely victors, but never entirely 
vanquished, they wearied out the Spanish valour by 
tedious operations on an unfavourable soil, and ex- 
hausted the wealth of the sovereign of both the Indies 
while they themselves were called beggars, and in a 
degree actually were so. The league of Ghent, which 

312 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 313 

had united the whole Netherlands, Eoman Catholic and 
Protestant, in a common and (could such a confedera- 
tion have lasted) invincible body, was indeed dissolved ; 
but in place of this uncertain and unnatural combina- 
tion the northern provinces had, in the year 1579, 
formed among themselves the closer union of Utrecht, 
which promised to be more lasting, inasmuch as it was 
linked and held together by common political and 
rehgious interests. What the new repubhc had lost in 
extent through this separation from the Eoman Cath- 
olic provinces it was fully compensated for by the 
closeness of alliance, the unity of enterprise, and energy 
of execution ; and perhaps it was fortunate in thus 
timely losing what no exertion probably would ever 
have enabled it to retain. 

The greater part of the Walloon provinces had, in the 
year 1584, partly by voluntary submission and partly 
by force of arms, been again reduced under the Spanish 
yoke. The northern districts alone had been able at 
all successfully to oppose it. A considerable portion 
of Brabant and Flanders still obstinately held out 
against the arms of the Duke Alexander of Parma, who 
at that time administered the civil government of the 
provinces, and the supreme command of the army, with 
equal energy and prudence, and by a series of splendid 
victories had revived the military reputation of Spain. 
The pecuhar formation of the country, which by its 
numerous rivers and canals facihtated the connection 
of the towns with one another and with the sea, baffled 
all attempts effectually to subdue it, and the possession 
of one place could only be maintained by the occupa- 
tion of another. So long as this communication was 
kept up Holland and Zealand could with little diffi- 
culty assist their allies, and supply them abundantly 
by water as well as by land with all necessaries, so that 
valour was of no use, and the strength of the king's 
troops was fruitlessly wasted on tedious sieges. 



314 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

Of all the towns in Brabant Antwerp was the most 
important, as well from its wealth, its population, and 
its mihtary force, as by its position on the mouth of 
the Scheldt. This great and populous town, which at 
this date contained more than eighty thousand inhab- 
itants, was one of the most active members of the 
national league, and had in the course of the war dis- 
tinguished itself above all the towns of Belgium by an 
untamable spirit of liberty. As it fostered within its 
bosom all the three Christian churches, and owed much 
of its prosperity to this unrestricted religious liberty, it 
had the more cause to dread the Spanish rule, which 
threatened to abohsh this toleration, and by the terror 
of the Inquisition to drive all the Protestant merchants 
from its markets. Moreover, it had had but too terrible 
experience of the brutality of the Spanish garrisons, and 
it was quite evident that if it once more suffered this 
insupportable yoke to be imposed upon it it would 
never again during the whole course of the war be able 
to throw it off. 

But powerful as were the motives which stimulated 
Antwerp to resistance, equally strong were the reasons 
which determined the Spanish general to make himself 
master of the place at any cost. On the possession of 
this town depended in a great measure that of the 
whole province of Brabant, which by this channel 
chiefly derived its supplies of corn from Zealand, while 
the capture of this place would secure to the victor the 
command of the Scheldt. It would also deprive the 
league of Brabant, which held its meetings in the town, 
of its principal support ; the whole faction of its dan- 
gerous influence, of its example, its counsels, and its 
money, while the treasures of its inhabitants would 
open plentiful supplies for the military exigencies of 
the king. Its fall would sooner or later necessarily 
draw after it that of all Brabant, and the preponder- 
ance of power in that quarter would decide the whole 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 315 

dispute in favour of the king. Determined by these 
grave considerations, the Duke of Parma drew his 
forces together in July, 1584, and advanced from his 
position at Dornick to the neighbourhood of Antwerp, 
with the intention of investing it. 

But both the natural position and fortifications of the 
town appeared to defy attacks. Surrounded on the side 
of Brabant with insurmountable works and moats, and 
toward Flanders covered by the broad and rapid stream 
of the Scheldt, it could not be carried by storm ; and to 
blockade a town of such extent seemed to require a 
land force three times larger than that which the duke 
had, and moreover a fleet, of which he was utterly des- 
titute. Not only did the river yield the town all neces- 
sary supplies from Ghent, it also opened an easy com- 
munication with the bordering province of Zealand. For, 
as the tide of the ISTorth Sea extends far up the Scheldt, 
and ebbs and flows regularly, Antwerp enjoys the pecul- 
iar advantage that the same tide flows past it at different 
times in two opposite directions. Besides, the adjacent 
towns of Brussels, Malines, Ghent, Dendermonde, and 
others, were all at this time in the hands of the league, 
and could aid the place from the land side also. To 
blockade, therefore, the town by land, and to cut o& its 
communication with Flanders and Brabant, required 
two different armies, one on each bank of the river. A 
sufficient fleet was likewise needed to guard the passage 
of the Scheldt, and to prevent all attempts at relief, 
which would most certainly be made from Zealand. 
But by the war which he had still to carry on in other 
quarters, and by the numerous garrisons which he was 
obliged to leave in the towns and fortified places, the 
army of the duke was reduced to ten thousand infantry 
and seventeen hundred horse, a force very inadequate 
for an undertaking of such magnitude. Moreover, 
these troops were deficient in the most necessary sup- 
plies, and the long arrears of pay had excited them to 



3i6 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

subdued murmurs, which hourly threatened to break 
out into open mutiny. If, notwithstanding these diffi- 
culties, he should still attempt the siege, there would 
be much occasion to fear from the strongholds of the 
enemy, which were left in the rear, and from w^hich it 
would be easy, by vigorous sallies, to annoy an army 
distributed over so many places, and to expose it to 
want by cutting off its supplies. 

All these considerations were brought forward by 
the council of war, before which the Duke of Parma 
now laid his scheme. However great the confidence 
which they placed in themselves, and in the proved 
abilities of such a leader, nevertheless the most experi- 
enced generals did not disguise their despair of a fortu- 
nate result. Two only were exceptions, Capizucchi 
and Mondragone, whose ardent courage placed them 
above all apprehensions ; the rest concurred in dissuad- 
ing the duke from attempting so hazardous an enter- 
prise, by which they ran the risk of forfeiting the fruit 
of all their former victories and tarnishing the glory 
they had already earned. 

But objections, which he had already made to him- 
self and refuted, could not shake the Duke of Parma 
in his purpose. Not in ignorance of its inseparable 
dangers, not from thoughtless overvaluing his forces, 
had he taken this bold resolve. But that instinctive 
genius which leads great men by paths which inferior 
minds either never enter upon or never finish, raised 
him above the influence of the doubts which a cold 
and narrow prudence would oppose to his views ; and, 
without being able to convince his generals, he felt the 
correctness of his calculations in a conviction indistinct, 
indeed, but not on that account less indubitable. A 
succession of fortunate results had raised his confi- 
dence, and the sight of his army, unequalled in Europe 
for discipline, experience, and valour, and commanded 
by a chosen body of the most distinguished officers, 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 317 

did not permit him to entertain fear for a moment. 
To those who objected to the small number of his 
troops, he answered, that however long the pike, it is 
only the point that kills ; and that in mihtary enter- 
prise, the moving power was of more importance than 
the mass to be moved. He was aware, indeed, of the 
discontent of his troops, but he knew also their obedi- 
ence; and he thought, moreover, that the best means 
to stifle their murmurs was by keeping them employed 
in some important undertaking, by stimulating their 
desire of glory by the splendour of the enterprise, and 
their rapacity by hopes of the rich booty which the 
capture of so wealthy a town would hold out. 

In the plan which he now formed for the conduct of 
the siege he endeavoured to meet all these difficulties. 
Famine was the only instrument by which he could 
hope to subdue the town; but effectually to use this 
formidable weapon, it would be expedient to cut off all 
its land and water communications. With this view, 
the first object was to stop, or at least to impede, the 
arrival of supplies from Zealand. It was, therefore, 
requisite not only to carry all the outworks, which the 
people of Antwerp had built on both shores of the 
Scheldt for the protection of their shipping ; but also, 
wherever feasible, to throw up new batteries which 
should command the whole course of the river ; and to 
prevent the place from drawing supplies from the land 
side, while efforts were being made to intercept their 
transmission by sea, all the adjacent towns of Brabant 
and Flanders were comprehended in the plan of the 
siege, and the fall of Antwerp was based on the destruc- 
tion of all those places. A bold and, considering the 
duke's scanty force, an almost extravagant project, 
which was, however, justified by the genius of its 
author, and crowned by fortune with a brilliant result. 

As, however, time was required to accomplish a plan 
of this magnitude, the Prince of Parma was content, 



3i8 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

for the present, with the erection of numerous forts on 
the canals and rivers which connected Antwerp with 
Dendermonde, Ghent, Malines, Brussels, and other 
places. Spanish garrisons were quartered in the vicin- 
ity, and almost at the very gates of those towns, which 
laid waste the open country, and by their incursions 
kept the surrounding territory in alarm. Thus, around 
Ghent alone were encamped about three thousand men, 
and proportionate numbers around the other towns. In 
this way, and by means of the secret understanding 
which he maintained with the Eoman Catholic inhab- 
itants of those towns, the duke hoped, without weaken- 
ing his own forces, gradually to exhaust their strength, 
and by the harassing operations of a petty but incessant 
warfare, even without any formal siege, to reduce them 
at last to capitulate. 

In the meantime the main force was directed against 
Antwerp, which he now closely invested. He fixed his 
headquarters at Bevern in Flanders, a few miles from 
Antwerp, where he found a fortified camp. The protec- 
tion of the Flemish bank of the Scheldt was entrusted 
to the Margrave of Eysburg, general of cavalry ; the 
Brabant bank to the Count Peter Ernest Von Mansfeld, 
who was joined by another Spanish leader, Mondragone. 
Both the latter succeeded in crossing the Scheldt upon 
pontoons, notwithstanding the Flemish admiral's ship 
was sent to oppose them, and, passing Antwerp, took 
up their position at Stabroek in Bergen. Detached 
corps dispersed themselves along the whole Brabant 
side, partly to secure the dykes and the roads. 

Some miles below Antwerp the Scheldt was guarded 
by two strong forts, of which one was situated at Lief- 
kenshoek on the island Doel, in Flanders, the other at 
Lillo, exactly opposite the coast of Brabant. The last 
had been erected by Mondragone himself, by order of 
the Duke of Alva, when the latter was still master 
of Antwerp, and for this very reason the Duke of 








'i-H'jvjJu/r 



s, Brussel 



ii. Tli 
about three th(jusand mt. n 



" Furious Sallies of the "Besieged " 

photogravure from the painting by Cordova 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 319 

Parma now entrusted to him the attack upon it. On 
the possession of these two forts the success of the 
siege seemed wholly to depend, since all the vessels 
saihng from Zealand to Antwerp must pass under their 
guns. Both forts had a short time before been strength- 
ened by the besieged, and the former was scarcely 
finished when the Margrave of Eysburg attacked it. 
The celerity with which he went to work surprised the 
enemy before they were sufficiently prepared for defence, 
and a brisk assault quickly placed Liefkenshoek in the 
hands of the Spaniards. The confederates sustained 
this loss on the same fatal day that the Prince of 
Orange fell at Delft by the hands of an assassin. The 
other batteries, erected on the island of Doel, were 
partly abandoned by their defenders, partly taken by 
surprise, so that in a short time the whole Flemish 
side was cleared of the enemy. But the fort at Lillo, 
on the Brabant shore, offered a more vigorous resist- 
ance, since the people of Antwerp had had time to 
strengthen its fortifications and to provide it with a 
strong garrison. Furious sallies of the besieged, led by 
Odets von Teligny, supported by the cannon of the 
fort, destroyed all the works of the Spaniards, and an 
inundation, which was effected by opening the sluices, 
finally drove them away from the place after a three 
weeks' siege, and with the loss of nearly two thousand 
killed. They now retired into their fortified camp at 
Stabroek, and contented themselves with taking pos- 
session of the dams which run across the lowlands of 
Bergen, and oppose a breastwork to the encroachments 
of the East Scheldt. 

The failure of his attempt upon the fort of Lillo 
compelled the Prince of Parma to change his measures. 
As he could not succeed in stopping the passage of the 
Scheldt by his original plan, on which the success of 
the siege entirely depended, he determined to effect his 
purpose by throwing a bridge across the whole breadth 



320 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

of the river. The thought was bold, and there were 
many who held it to be rash. Both the breadth of the 
stream, which at this part exceeds twelve hundred 
paces, as well as its violence, which is still further aug- 
mented by the tides of the neighbouring sea, appeared 
to render every attempt of this kind impracticable. 
Moreover, he had to contend with a deficiency of tim- 
ber, vessels, and workmen, as well as with the danger- 
ous position between the fleets of Antwerp and of 
Zealand, to which it would necessarily be an easy task, 
in combination with a boisterous element, to interrupt 
so tedious a work. But the Prince of Parma knew his 
power, and his settled resolution would yield to nothing 
short of absolute impossibility. After he had caused 
the breadth as well as the depth of the river to be 
measured, and had consulted with two of his most 
skilful engineers, Barocci and Plato, it was settled that 
the bridge should be constructed between Calloo in 
Flanders and Ordam in Brabant. This spot was selected 
because the river is here narrowest, and bends a little 
to the right, and so detains vessels a while by com- 
pelling them to tack. To cover the bridge strong bas- 
tions were erected at both ends, of which the one on 
the Flanders side was named Fort St. Maria, the other, 
on the Brabant side, Fort St. Philip, in honour of the 
king. 

While active preparations were making in the Span- 
ish camp for the execution of this scheme, and the 
whole attention of the enemy was directed to it, the 
duke made an unexpected attack upon Dendermonde, 
a strong town between Ghent and Antwerp, at the 
confluence of the Dender and the Scheldt. As long as 
this important place was in the hands of the enemy 
the towns of Ghent and Antwerp could mutually sup- 
port each other, and by the facility of their communi- 
cation frustrate all the efforts of the besiegers. Its 
capture would leave the prince free to act against both 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 321 

towns, and might decide the fate of his undertaking. 
The rapidity of his attack left the besieged no time to 
open their sluices and lay the country under water. 
A hot cannonade was opened upon the chief bastion of 
the town before the Brussels gate, but was answered 
by the fire of the besieged, which made great havoc 
amongst the Spaniards. It increased, however, rather 
than discouraged their ardour, and the insults of the 
garrison, who mutilated the statue of a saint before 
their eyes, and, after treating it with the most contu- 
mehous indignity, hurled it down from the rampart, 
raised their fury to the highest pitch. Clamorously 
they demanded to be led against the bastion before 
their fire had made a sufficient breach in it, and the 
prince, to avail himself of the first ardour of their im- 
petuosity, gave the signal for the assault. After a san- 
guinary contest of two hours the rampart was mounted, 
and those who were not sacrificed to the first fury of 
the Spaniards threw themselves into the town. The 
latter was indeed now more exposed, a fire being 
directed upon it from the works which had been car- 
ried ; but its strong walls and the broad moat which 
surrounded it gave reason to expect a protracted resist- 
ance. The inventive resources of the Prince of Parma 
soon overcame this obstacle also. While the bombard- 
ment was carried on night and day, the troops were 
incessantly employed in diverting the course of the 
Dender, which supphed the fosse with water, and the 
besieged were seized with despair as they saw the water 
of the trenches, the last defence of the town, gradually 
disappear. They hastened to capitulate, and in August, 
1584, received a Spanish garrison. Thus, in the space 
of eleven days, the Prince of Parma accomplished an 
undertaking which, in the opinion of competent judges, 
would require as many weeks. 

The town of Ghent, now cut off from Antwerp and 
the sea, and hard pressed by the troops of the king. 



322 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

which were encamped in its vicinity, and without hope 
of immediate succour, began to despair, as famine, 
with all its dreadful train, advanced upon them with 
rapid steps. The inhabitants therefore despatched 
deputies to the Spanish camp at Bevern, to tender its 
submission to the king upon the same terms as the 
prince had a short time previously offered. The depu- 
ties were informed that the time for treaties was past, 
and that an unconditional submission alone could 
appease the just anger of the monarch whom they 
had offended by their rebelhon. Nay, they were even 
given to understand that it would be only through 
his great mercy if the same humihation were not 
exacted from them as their rebellious ancestors were 
forced to undergo under Charles V., namely, to im- 
plore pardon half-naked, and with a cord around their 
necks. The deputies returned to Ghent in despair, 
but three days afterward a new deputation was sent 
to the Spanish camp, which at last, by the intercession 
of one of the prince's friends, who was a prisoner in 
Ghent, obtained peace upon moderate terms. The 
town was to pay a fine of two hundred thousand 
florins, recall the banished papists, and expel the 
Protestant inhabitants, who, however, were to be al- 
lowed two years for the settlement of their affairs. 
All the inhabitants except six, who were reserved for 
capital punishment (but afterward pardoned), were in- 
cluded in a general amnesty, and the garrison, which 
amounted to two thousand men, was allowed to evacu- 
ate the place with the honours of war. This treaty 
was concluded in September of the same year, at the 
headquarters at Bevern, and immediately three thou- 
sand Spaniards marched into the town as a garrison. 

It was more by the terror of his name and the dread 
of famine than by the force of arms that the Prince of 
Parma had succeeded in reducing this city to submis- 
sion, the largest and strongest in the Netherlands, 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 323 

which was little inferior to Paris within the barriers 
of its inner town, consisted of thirty-seven thousand 
houses, and was built on twenty islands, connected 
by ninety-eight stone bridges. The important privi- 
leges which in the course of several centuries this city 
had contrived to extort from its rulers fostered in its 
inhabitants a spirit of independence, which not un- 
frequently degenerated into riot and license, and 
naturally brought it in collision with the Austrian- 
Spanish goverment. And it was exactly this bold 
spirit of hberty which procured for the Eeformation 
the rapid and extensive success it met with in this 
town, and the combined incentives of civil and relig- 
ious freedom produced all those scenes of violence by 
which, during the rebeUion, it had unfortunately dis- 
tinguished itseK. Besides the fine levied, the prince 
found within the walls a large store of artillery, car- 
riages, ships, and building materials of all kinds, with 
numerous workmen and sailors, who materially aided 
him in. his plans against Antwerp. 

Before Ghent surrendered to the king Yilvorden 
and Herentals had fallen into the hands of the Span- 
iards, and the capture of the blockhouses near the 
village of Willebrock had cut off Antwerp from Brus- 
sels and Malines. The loss of these places within so 
short a period deprived Antwerp of all hope of succour 
from Brabant and Flanders, and limited all their ex- 
pectations to the assistance which might be looked for 
from Zealand. But to deprive them also of this the 
Prince of Parma was now making the most energetic 
preparations. 

The citizens of Antwerp had beheld the first opera- 
tions of the enemy against their town with the proud 
security with which the sight of their invincible river 
inspired them. This confidence was also in a degree 
justified by the opinion of the Prince of Orange, who, 
upon the first intelligence of the design, had said that 



324 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

the Spanish army would inevitably perish before the 
walls of Antwerp. That nothing, however, might be 
neglected, he sent, a short time before his assassina- 
tion, for the burgomaster of Antwerp, Philip Marnix 
of St. Aldegonde, his intimate friend, to Delft, where 
he consulted with him as to the means of maintaining 
defensive operations. It was agreed between them 
that it would be advisable to demolish forthwith the 
great dam between Sanvliet and Lillo called the Blaau- 
garendyk, so as to allow the waters of the East 
Scheldt to inundate, if necessary, the lowlands of 
Bergen, and thus, in the event of the Scheldt being 
closed, to open a passage for the Zealand vessels to the 
town across the inundated country. Aldegonde had, 
after his return, actually persuaded the magistrate and 
the majority of the citizens to agree to this proposal, 
when it was resisted by the guild of butchers, who 
claimed that they would be ruined by such a measure ; 
for the plain which it was wished to lay under water 
was a vast tract of pasture land, upon which about 
twelve thousand oxen were annually put to graze. The 
objection of the butchers was successful, and they man- 
aged to prevent the execution of this salutary scheme 
until the enemy had got possession of the dams as well 
as the pasture land. 

At the suggestion of the burgomaster St. Aldegonde, 
who, himself a member of the states of Brabant, was 
possessed of great authority in that council, the forti- 
fications on both sides the Scheldt had, a short time be- 
fore the arrival of the Spaniards, been placed in repair, 
and many new redoubts erected around the town. The 
dams had been cut through at Saftingen, and the water 
of the West Scheldt let out over nearly the whole 
country of Waes. In the adjacent Marquisate of Ber- 
gen troops had been enlisted by the Count of Hohen- 
lohe, and a Scotch regiment, under the command of 
Colonel Morgan, was already in the pay of the republic, 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 325 

while fresh, reinforcements were daily expected from 
England and France. Above all, the states of Holland 
and Zealand were called upon to hasten their supplies. 
But after the enemy had taken strong positions on 
both sides of the river, and the fire of their batteries 
made the na^^gation dangerous, when place after place 
in Brabant fell into their hands, and their cavahy had 
cut off all communication on the land side, the inhab- 
itants of Antwerp began at last to entertain serious ap- 
prehensions for the future. The town then contained 
eighty-five thousand souls, and according to calcula- 
tion three hundred thousand quarters of corn were 
annually requii-ed for their support. At the beginning 
of the siege neither the supply nor the money was 
wanting for the laying in of such a store ; for in spite 
of the enemy's fire the Zealand victualling ships, taking 
advantage of the rising tide, contrived to make their 
way to the town. All that was requisite was to pre- 
vent any of the richer citizens from buying up these 
supphes, and, in case of scarcity, raising the price. 
To secure his object, one GianibeUi from Mantua, who 
had rendered important services in the course of the 
siege, proposed a property tax of one penny in every 
hundred, and the appointment of a board of respectable 
persons to purchase corn with this money, and distrib- 
ute it weekly. And until the returns of this tax 
should be available the richer classes should advance 
the required sum, holding the corn purchased, as a de- 
posit, in their own magazines ; and were also to share 
in the profit. But this plan was unwelcome to the 
wealthier citizens, who had resolved to profit by the 
general distress. They recommended that every indi- 
vidual should be required to provide himseM with a 
sufficient supply for two years; a proposition which, 
however it might suit their own circumstances, was 
very unreasonable in regard to the poorer inhabitants, 
who, even before the siege, could scarcely find means 



326 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

to supply themselves for so many months. They ob- 
tained indeed their object, which was to reduce the 
poor to the necessity of either quitting the place or 
becoming entirely their dependents. But when they 
afterward reflected that in the time of need the rights 
of property would not be respected, they found it ad- 
visable not to be overhasty in making their own pur- 
chases. 

The magistrate, in order to avert an evil that would 
have pressed upon individuals only, had recourse to an 
expedient which endangered the safety of all. Some 
enterprising persons in Zealand had freighted a large 
fleet with provisions, which succeeded in passing the 
guns of the enemy, and discharged its cargo at Ant- 
werp. The hope of a large profit had tempted the 
merchants to enter upon this hazardous speculation ; 
in this, however, they were disappointed, as the magis- 
trate of Antwerp had, just before their arrival, issued 
an edict regulating the price of all the necessaries of 
life. At the same time, to prevent individuals from 
buying up the whole cargo and storing it in their 
magazines with a view of disposing of it afterward at 
a dearer rate, he ordered that the whole should be 
publicly sold in any quantities from the vessels. The 
speculators, cheated of their hopes of profit by these 
precautions, set sail again, and left Antwerp with the 
greater part of their cargo, which would have sufficed 
for the support of the town for several months. 

This neglect of the most essential and natural means 
of preservation can only be explained by the supposi- 
tion that the inhabitants considered it absolutely im- 
possible ever to close the Scheldt completely, and 
consequently had not the least apprehension that 
things would come to extremity. When the intelli- 
gence arrived in Antwerp that the prince intended to 
throw a bridge over the Scheldt the idea was univer- 
sally ridiculed as chimerical. An arrogant comparison 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 327 

was drawn between the republic and the stream, and it 
was said that the one would bear the Spanish yoke as 
little as the other. "A river which is twenty-four 
hundred feet broad, and, with its own waters alone, 
above sixty feet deep, but which with the tide rose 
twelve feet more — would such a stream," it was 
asked, " submit to be spanned by a miserable piece of 
paling ? Where were beams to be found high enough 
to reach to the bottom and project above the surface ? 
and how was a work of this kind to stand in winter, 
when whole islands and mountains of ice, which stone 
walls could hardly resist, would be driven by the flood 
against its weak timbers, and splinter them to pieces 
like glass ? Or, perhaps, the prince purposed to con- 
struct a bridge of boats ; if so, where would he 
procure the latter, and how bring them into his in- 
trenchments ? They must necessarily be brought past 
Antwerp, where a fleet was ready to capture or sink 
them." 

But while they were trying to prove the absurdity 
of the Prince of Parma's undertaking he had already 
completed it. As soon as the forts St. Maria and St. 
PhiHp were erected, and protected the workmen and 
the work by their fire, a pier was built out into the 
stream from both banks, for which purpose the masts 
of the largest vessels were employed; by a skilful 
arrangement of the timbers they contrived to give the 
whole such solidity that, as the result proved, it was 
able to resist the violent pressure of the ice. These 
timbers, which rested firmly and securely on the bottom 
of the river, and projected a considerable height above 
it, being covered with planks, afforded a commodious 
roadway. It was wide enough to allow eight men to 
cross abreast, and a balustrade that ran along it on 
both sides, protected them from the fire of small-arms 
from the enemy's vessels. This " stacade," as it was 
called, ran from the two opposite shores as far as the 



328 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

increasing depth and force of the stream allowed. It 
reduced the breadth of the river to about eleven hun- 
dred feet ; as, however, the middle and proper current 
would not admit of such a barrier, there remained, 
therefore, between the two stacades a space of more 
than six hundred paces through which a whole fleet 
of transports could sail with ease. This intervening 
space the prince designed to close by a bridge of boats, 
for which purpose the craft must be procured from 
Dunkirk. But, besides that they could not be obtained 
in any number at that place, it would be difficult to 
bring them past Antwerp without great loss. He was, 
therefore, obliged to content himself for the time with 
having narrowed the stream one-half, and rendered the 
passage of the enemy's vessels so much the more dif- 
ficult. Where the stacades terminated in the middle 
of the stream they spread out into parallelograms, 
which were mounted with heavy guns, and served as a 
kind of battery on the water. From these a heavy fire 
was opened on every vessel that attempted to pass 
through this narrow channel. Whole fleets, however, 
and single vessels still attempted and succeeded in 
passing this dangerous strait. 

Meanwhile Ghent surrendered, and this unexpected 
success at once rescued the prince from his dilemma. 
He found in this town everything necessary to complete 
his bridge of boats ; and the only difficulty now was its 
safe transport, which was furnished by the enemy 
themselves. By cutting the dams at Saftingen a great 
part of the country of Waes, as far as the village of 
Borcht, had been laid under water, so that it was not 
difficult to cross it with flat-bottomed boats. The 
prince, therefore, ordered his vessels to run out from 
Ghent, and after passing Dendermonde and Eupel- 
monde to pass through the left dyke of the Scheldt, 
leaving Antwerp to the right, and sail over the inun- 
dated fields in the direction of Borcht. To protect this 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 329 

passage a fort was erected at the latter village, wMch 
would keep the enemy in check. All succeeded to his 
wishes, though not without a sharp action with the 
enemy's flotilla, which was sent out to intercept, this 
convoy. After breakinc^ through a few more dams on 
their route, they reached the Spanish quarters at 
Calloo, and successfullv entered the Scheldt again. The 
exultation of the army was greater when they dis- 
covered the extent of the danger the vessels had so 
narrowly escaped. Scarcely had they got quit of the 
enemy's vessels when a strong reinforcement from Ant- 
werp got under weigh, commanded by the valiant 
defender of Lillo, Odets von Tehgny. When this officer 
saw that the affair was over, and that the enemy had 
escaped, he took possession of the dam through which 
their fleet had passed, and threw up a fort on the spot 
in order to stop the passage of any vessels from Ghent 
which might attempt to follow them. 

By this step the prince was again thrown into em- 
barrassment. He was far from having as yet a suffi- 
cient number of vessels, either for the construction of 
the bridge or for its defence, and the passage by which 
the former convoy had arrived was now closed by the 
fort erected by Teligny. ^Miile he was reconnoitring 
the country to discover a new way for his fleets an 
idea occurred to him which not only put an end to his 
present dilemma, but greatly accelerated the success of 
his whole plan. Xot far from the village of Stecken, 
in Waes, which is within some five thousand paces of 
the commencement of the inundation, flows a small 
stream called the Moer, which falls into the Scheldt 
near Ghent. From this river he caused a canal to be 
dug to the spot where the inundations began, and as 
the water of these was not everywhere deep enough 
for the transit of his boats, the canal between Bevern 
and Yerrebroek was continued to Calloo, where it was 
met by the Scheldt. At this work five hundred 



330 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

pioneers laboured without intermission, and in order to 
cheer the toil of the soldiers the prince himself took part 
in it. In this way did he imitate the example of the 
two celebrated Eomans, Drusus and Corbulo, who by- 
similar works had united the Ehine with the Zuyder 
Zee, and the Maes with the Ehine. 

This canal, which the army in honour of its pro- 
jector called the canal of Parma, was fourteen thousand 
paces in length, and was of proportionable depth and 
breadth, so as to be navigable for ships of a consider- 
able burden. It afforded to the vessels from Ghent not 
only a more secure, but also a much shorter course to 
the Spanish quarters, because it was no longer neces- 
sary to follow the many windings of the Scheldt, but 
entering the Moer at once near Ghent, and from thence 
passing close to Stecken, they could proceed through 
the canal and across the inundated country as far as 
Calloo. As the produce of all Flanders was brought 
to the town of Ghent, this canal placed the Spanish 
camp in communication with the w^hole province. 
Abundance poured into the camp from all quarters, so 
that during the whole course of the siege the Spaniards 
suffered no scarcity of any kind. But the greatest 
benefit which the prince derived from this work was an 
adequate supply of flat-bottomed vessels to complete 
his bridge. 

These preparations were overtaken by the arrival of 
winter, which, as the Scheldt was filled with drift-ice, 
occasioned a considerable delay in the building of the 
bridge. The prince had contemplated with anxiety 
the approach of this season, lest it should prove highly 
destructive to the work he had undertaken, and afford 
the enemy a favourable opportunity for making a seri- 
ous attack upon it. But the skill of his engineers 
saved him from the one danger, and the strange inac- 
tion of the enemy freed him from the other. It fre- 
quently happened, indeed, that at flood-time large 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 331 

pieces of ice were entangled in tlie timbers, and 
shook them violently, but they stood the assault of 
the furious element, which only served to prove their 
stability. 

In Antwerp, meanwhile, important moments had 
been wasted in futile deliberations ; and in a struggle 
of factions the general welfare was neglected. The 
government of the town was divided among too many 
heads, and much too great a share in it was held by 
the riotous mob to allow room for calmness of dehber- 
ation or firmness of action. Besides the municipal 
magistracy itseK, in which the burgomaster had only 
a single voice, there were in the city a number of 
guilds, to whom were consigned the charge of the 
internal and external defence, the provisioning of the 
town, its fortifications, the marine, commerce, etc. ; 
some of whom must be consulted in every business 
of importance. By means of this crowd of speakers, 
who intruded at pleasure into the council, and man- 
aged to carry by clamour and the number of their 
adherents what they could not effect by their argu- 
ments, the people obtained a dangerous influence in 
the public debates, and the natural struggle of such 
discordant interests retarded the execution of every 
salutary measure. A government so vacillating and 
impotent could not command the respect of unruly 
sailors and a lawless soldiery. The orders of the state 
consequently were but imperfectly obeyed, and the 
decisive moment was more than once lost by the negli- 
gence, not to say the open mutiny, both of the land 
and sea forces. 

The little harmony in the selection of the means by 
which the enemy was to be opposed would not, how- 
ever, have proved so injurious had there but existed 
unanimity as to the end. But on this very point 
the wealthy citizens and poorer classes were divided ; 
so the former, having everything to apprehend from 



332 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

allowing matters to be carried to extremity, were 
strongly inclined to treat with the Prince of Parma. 
This disposition they did not even attempt to conceal 
after the fort of Liefkenshoek had fallen into the 
enemy's hands, and serious fears were entertained for 
the navigation of the Scheldt. Some of them, indeed, 
withdrew entirely from the danger, and left to its fate 
the town, whose prosperity they had been ready 
enough to share, but in whose adversity they were 
unwilling to bear a part. From sixty to seventy of 
those who remained memoriahsed the council, advising 
that terms should be made with the king. No sooner, 
however, had the populace got iatelligence of it than 
their indignation broke out in a violent uproar, which 
was with difficulty appeased by the imprisonment and 
fining of the petitioners. TranquilHty could only be 
fully restored by publication of an edict, which imposed 
the penalty of death on all who either pubhcly or 
privately should countenance proposals for peace. 

The Prince of Parma did not fail to take advantage 
of these disturbances ; for nothing that transpired 
within the city escaped his notice, being well served 
by the agents with whom he maintained a secret 
understanding with Antwerp, as well as the other 
towns of Brabant and Flanders. Although he had 
already made considerable progress in his measures for 
distressing the town, still he had many steps to take 
before he could actually make himself master of it; 
and one unlucky moment might destroy the work of 
many months. Without, therefore, neglecting any 
of his warhke preparations, he determined to make one 
more serious attempt to get possession by fair means. 
With this object he despatched a letter in November 
to the great council of Antwerp, in which he skilfully 
made use of every topic likely to induce the citizens to 
come to terms, or at least to increase their existing dis- 
sensions. He treated them in this letter in the light of 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 333 

persons who had been led astray, and threw the whole 
blame of their revolt and refractory conduct hitherto 
upon the intriguing spirit of the Prince of Orange, from 
whose artifices the retributive justice of Heaven had so 
lately liberated them. " It was," he said, " now in their 
power to awake from their long infatuation and return 
to their allegiance to a monarch who was ready and 
anxious to be reconciled to his subjects. For this end 
he gladly offered himself as mediator, as he had never 
ceased to love a country in which he had been born, 
and where he had spent the happiest days of his youth. 
He therefore exhorted them to send plenipotentiaries 
with whom he could arrange the conditions of peace, 
and gave them hopes of obtaining reasonable terms if 
they made a timely submission, but also threatened 
them with the severest treatment if they pushed 
matters to extremity." 

This letter, in which we are glad to recognise a lan- 
guage very different from that which the Duke of Alva 
held ten years before on a similar occasion, was an- 
swered by the townspeople in a respectful and dignified 
tone. While they did full justice to the personal char- 
acter of the prince, and acknowledged his favourable 
intentions toward them with gratitude, they lamented 
the hardness of the times, which placed it out of his 
power to treat them in accordance with his character 
and disposition. They declared that they would gladly 
place their fate in his hands if he were absolute master 
of his actions, instead of being obliged to obey the 
will of another, whose proceedings his own candour 
would not allow him to approve of. The unalterable 
resolution of the King of Spain, as well as the vow 
which he had made to the Pope, were only too well 
known for them to have any hopes in that quarter. 
They at the same time defended with a noble warmth 
the memory of the Prince of Orange, their benefactor 
and preserver, while they enumerated the true cases 



334 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

which had produced this unhappy war, and had caused 
the provinces to revolt from the Spanish crown. At 
the same time they did not disguise from him that they 
had hopes of finding a new and a milder master in the 
King of France, and that, if only for this reason, they 
could not enter into any treaty with the Spanish king 
without incurring the charge of the most culpable fic- 
kleness and ingratitude. 

The united provinces, in fact, dispirited by a succes- 
sion of reverses, had at last come to the determination of 
placing themselves under the protection and sovereignty 
of France, and of preserving their existence and their 
ancient privileges by the sacrifice of their independence. 
With this view an embassy had some time before been 
despatched to Paris, and it was the prospect of this 
powerful assistance which principally supported the 
courage of the people of Antwerp. Henry III., King 
of France, was personally disposed to accept this offer ; 
but the troubles which the intrigues of the Spaniards 
contrived to excite within his own kingdom compelled 
him against his will to abandon it. The provinces now 
turned for assistance to Queen Ehzabeth of England, 
who sent them some supplies, which, however, came too 
late to save Antwerp. While the people of this city 
were awaiting the issue of these negotiations, and 
expecting aid from foreign powers, they neglected, 
unfortunately, the most natural and immediate means 
of defence ; the whole winter was lost, and while the 
enemy turned it to greater advantage the more com- 
plete was their indecision and inactivity. 

The burgomaster of Antwerp, St. Aldegonde, had, 
indeed, repeatedly urged the fleet of Zealand to attack 
the enemy's works, which should be supported on the 
other side from Antwerp. The long and frequently 
stormy nights would favour this attempt, and if at the 
same time a sally were made by the garrison at Lillo, 
it seemed scarcely possible for the enemy to resist this 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 335 

triple assault. But unfortunately misunderstandings 
had arisen between the commander of the fleet, William 
von Blois von Treslong, and the admiralty of Zealand, 
which caused the equipment of the fleet to be most 
unaccountably delayed. In order to quicken their 
movements Teligny at last resolved to go himself to 
Middelburg, where the states of Zealand were assem- 
bled ; but as the enemy were in possession of all the 
roads the attempt cost him his freedom and the repub- 
lic its most vahant defender. However, there was no 
want of enterprising vessels, which, under the favour 
of the night and the flood-tide, passing through the still 
open bridge in spite of the enemy's fire, threw provi- 
sions into the town and returned with the ebb. But as 
many of these vessels fell into the hands of the enemy 
the council gave orders that they should never risk the 
passage unless they amounted to a certain number; 
and the result, unfortunately, was that none attempted 
it because the required number could not be collected 
at one time. Several attacks were also made from 
Antwerp on the ships of the Spaniards, which were 
not entirely unsuccessful ; some of the latter were cap- 
tured, others sunk, and all that was required was to 
execute similar attempts on a grand scale. But how- 
ever zealously St. Aldegonde urged this, still not a 
captain was to be found who would command a vessel 
for that purpose. 

Amid these delays the winter expired, and scarcely 
had the ice begun to disappear when the construction 
of the bridge of boats was actively resumed by the 
besiegers. Between the two piers a space of more than 
six hundred paces still remained to be filled up, which 
was effected in the following manner : Thirty-two flat- 
bottomed vessels, each sixty-six feet long and twenty 
broad, were fastened together with strong cables and 
iron chains, but at a distance from each other of about 
twenty feet to allow a free passage to the stream. 



336 REVOLt OF THE NETHERLANDS 

Each boat, moreover, was moored with two cables, both 
up and down the stream, but which, as the water rose 
with the tide, or sunk with the ebb, could be slackened 
or tightened. Upon the boats great masts were laid 
which reached from one to another, and, being covered 
with planks, formed a regular road, which, like that 
along the piers, was protected with a balustrade. This 
bridge of boats, of which the two piers formed a con- 
tinuation, had, including the latter, a length of twenty- 
four thousand paces. This formidable work was so 
ingeniously constructed, and so richly furnished with 
the instruments of destruction, that it seemed almost 
capable, like a living creature, of defending itself at the 
word of command, scattering death among all who 
approached. Besides the two forts of St. Maria and 
St. Phihp, which terminated the bridge on either shore, 
and the two wooden bastions on the bridge itself, which 
were filled with soldiers and mounted with guns on all 
sides, each of the two and thirty vessels was manned 
with thirty soldiers and four sailors, and showed the 
cannon's mouth to the enemy, whether he came up 
from Zealand or down from Antwerp. There were in 
all ninety-seven cannon, which were distributed beneath 
and above the bridge, and more than fifteen hundred 
men who were posted, partly in the forts, partly in the 
vessels, and, in case of necessity, could maintain a ter- 
rible fire of small-arms upon the enemy. 

But with all this the prince did not consider his 
work sufficiently secure. It was to be expected that 
the enemy would leave nothing unattempted to burst 
by the force of his machines the middle and weakest 
part. To guard against this, he erected in a line with 
the bridge of boats, but at some distance from it, 
another distinct defence, intended to break the force 
of any attack that might be directed against the bridge 
itself. This work consisted of thirty-three vessels of 
considerable magnitude, which were moored in a row 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 337 

athwart the stream and fastened in threes by masts, so 
that they formed eleven different groups. Each of 
these, like a file of pikemen, presented fourteen long 
wooden poles with iron heads to the approaching 
enemy. These vessels were loaded merely with bal- 
last, and were anchored each by a double but slack 
cable, so as to be able to give to the rise and fall of 
the tide. As they were in constant motion they got 
from the soldiers the name of " swimmers." The whole 
bridge of boats and also a part of the piers were cov- 
ered by these swimmers, which were stationed above 
as well as below the bridge. To all these defensive 
preparations was added a fleet of forty men-of-war, 
which were stationed on both coasts and served as a 
protection to the whole. 

This astonishing work was finished in March, 1585, 
the seventh month of the siege, and the day on which 
it was completed was kept as a jubilee by the troops. 
The great event was announced to the besieged by a 
grand feu de joie, and the army, as if to enjoy ocular 
demonstration of its triumph, extended itself along the 
whole platform to gaze upon the proud stream, peace- 
fully and obediently flowing under the yoke which had 
been imposed upon it. All the toil they had under- 
gone was forgotten in the dehghtful spectacle, and 
every man who had had a hand in it, however insig- 
nificant he might be, assumed to himself a portion of 
the honour which the successful execution of so gigan- 
tic an enterprise conferred on its illustrious projector. 
On the other hand, nothing could equal the consterna- 
tion which seized the citizens of Antwerp when intelli- 
gence was brought them that the Scheldt was now 
actually closed, and all access from Zealand cut off. 
To increase their dismay they learned the fall of 
Brussels also, which had at last been compelled by 
famine to capitulate. An attempt made by the Count 
of Hohenlohe about the same time on Herzogenbusch, 



ZS^ REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

with a view to recapture the town, or at least form 
a diversion, was equally unsuccessful; and thus the 
unfortunate city lost all hope of assistance, both by 
sea and land. 

These evil tidings were brought them by some fugi- 
tives who had succeeded in passing the Spanish videttes, 
and had made their way into the town ; and a spy, 
whom the burgomaster had sent out to reconnoitre the 
enemy's works, increased the general alarm by his re- 
port. He had been seized and carried before the Prince 
of Parma, who commanded him to be conducted over 
all the works, and all the defences of the bridge to be 
pointed out to him. After this had been done he was 
again brought before the general, who dismissed him 
with these words : " Go," said he, " and report what you 
have seen to those who sent you. And tell them, too, 
that it is my firm resolve to bury myself under the 
ruins of this bridge or by means of it to pass into your 
town." 

But the certainty of danger now at last awakened the 
zeal of the confederates, and it was no fault of theirs if 
the former half of the prince's vow was not fulfilled. 
The latter had long viewed with apprehension the prep- 
arations which were making in Zealand for the relief 
of the town. He saw clearly that it was from this 
quarter that he had to fear the most dangerous blow, 
and that with all his works he could not make head 
against the combined fleets of Zealand and Antwerp if 
they were to fall upon him at the same time and at the 
proper moment. For awhile the delays of the admi- 
ral of Zealand, which he had laboured by all the 
means in his power to prolong, had been his security, 
but now the urgent necessity accelerated the expedi- 
tion, and without waiting for the admiral the states at 
Middelburg despatched the Count Justin of Nassau, 
with as many ships as they could muster, to the assist- 
ance of the besieged. This fleet took up a position 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 339 

before Liefkenshoek, which was in possession of the 
Spaniards, and, supported by a few vessels from the 
opposite fort of Lillo, cannonaded it with such success 
that the walls were in a short time demohshed, and the 
place carried by storm. The Walloons who formed 
the garrison did not display the firmness which might 
have been expected from soldiers of the Duke of 
Parma; they shamefully surrendered the fort to the 
enemy, who in a short time were in possession of the 
whole island of Doel, with all the redoubts situated 
upon it. The loss of these places, which were, how- 
ever, soon retaken, incensed the Duke of Parma so 
much that he tried the officers by court martial, and 
caused the most culpable among them to be beheaded. 
Meanwhile this important conquest opened to the Zea- 
landers a free passage as far as the bridge, and after 
concerting with the people of Antwerp the time was 
fixed for a combined attack on this work. It was 
arranged that, while the bridge of boats was blown up 
by machines abeady prepared in Antwerp, the Zealand 
fleet, with a sufficient supply of provisions, should be 
in the vicinity, ready to sail to the town through the 
opening. 

While the Duke of Parma was engaged in construct- 
ing his bridge an engineer within the walls was abeady 
preparing the materials for its destructioiL Frederick 
Gianibelli was the name of the man whom fate had 
destined to be the Archimedes of Antwerp, and to ex- 
haust in its defence the same ingenuity with the same 
want of success. He was born in Mantua, and had 
formerly visited Madrid for the purpose, it was said, 
of offering his services to King Philip in the Belgian 
war. But wearied with waiting, the offended engineer 
left the court with the intention of making the King 
of Spain sensibly feel the value of talents which he 
had so httle known how to appreciate. He next 
sought the service of Queen Elizabeth of England, 



340 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

the declared enemy of Spain, who, after witnessing a 
few specimens of his skill, sent him to Antwerp. He 
took up his residence in that town, and in the present 
extremity devoted to its defence his knowledge, his 
energy, and his zeal. 

As soon as this artist perceived that the project of 
erecting the bridge was seriously intended, and that 
the work was fast approaching to completion, he 
applied to the magistracy for three large vessels, from 
a hundred and fifty to five hundred tons, in which 
he proposed to place mines. He also demanded sixty 
boats, which, fastened together with cables and chains, 
furnished with projecting grappling-irons, and put in 
motion with the ebbing of the tide, were intended 
to second the operation of the mine-ships by being 
directed in a wedgelike form against the bridge. But 
he had to deal with men who were quite incapable 
of comprehending an idea out of the common way, 
and even where the salvation of their country was at 
stake could not forget the calculating habits of trade. 

His scheme was rejected as too expensive, and with 
difficulty he at last obtained the grant of two smaller 
vessels, fi-om seventy to eighty tons, with a number 
of flat-bottomed boats. With these two vessels, one of 
which he called the Fortune and the other the Hope^ 
he proceeded in the following manner : In the hold of 
each he built a hollow chamber of freestone, five feet 
broad, three and a half high, and forty long. This 
magazine he filled with sixty hundred weight of the 
finest priming powder of his own compounding, and 
covered it with as heavy a weight of large slabs 
and millstones as the vessels could carry. Over these 
he further added a roof of similar stones, which ran up 
to a point and projected six feet above the ship's side. 
The deck itself was crammed with iron chains and 
hooks, knives, nails, and other destructive missiles; 
the remaining space, which was not occupied by the 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 341 

magazine, was likewise filled up with planks. Several 
small apertures were left in the chamber for the matches 
which were to set fire to the mine. For greater cer- 
tainty he had also contrived a piece of mechanism 
which, after the lapse of a given time, would strike out 
sparks, and even if the matches failed would set the 
ship on fire. To delude the enemy into a belief that 
these machines were only intended to set the bridge on 
fire, a composition of brimstone and pitch was placed 
in the top, which could burn a whole hour. And still 
further to divert the enemy's attention from the proper 
seat of danger, he also prepared thirty-two flat-bottomed 
boats, upon which there were only fireworks burning, 
and whose sole object was to deceive the enemy. 
These fire-ships were to be sent down upon the bridge 
in four separate squadrons, at intervals of half an hour, 
and keep the enemy incessantly engaged for two whole 
hours, so that, tired of firing and wearied by vain 
expectation, they might at last relax their vigilance 
before the real fire-ships came. In addition to all this, 
he also despatched a few vessels in which powder was 
concealed in order to blow up the floating work before 
the bridge, and to clear a passage for the two principal 
ships. At the same time he hoped by this preliminary 
attack to engage the enemy's attention, to draw them 
out, and expose them to the full deadly effect of the 
volcano. 

The night between the 4th and 5 th of April was 
fixed for the execution of this great undertaking. An 
obscure rumour of it had already diffused itself through 
the Spanish camp, and particularly from the circum- 
stance of many divers from Antwerp having been 
detected endeavouring to cut the cables of the vessels. 
They were prepared, therefore, for a serious attack ; 
they only mistook the real nature of it, and counted 
on having to fight rather with man than the elements. 
In this expectation the duke caused the guards along 



342 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

the whole bank to be doubled, and drew up the chief 
part of his troops in the vicinity of the bridge, where 
he was present in person ; thus meeting the danger 
while endeavouring to avoid it. No sooner was it 
dark than three burning vessels were seen to float 
down from the city toward the bridge, then three more, 
and directly after the same number. They beat to 
arms throughout the Spanish camp, and the whole 
length of the bridge was crowded with soldiers. Mean- 
time the number of the fire-ships increased, and they 
came in regular order down the stream, sometimes tw^o 
and sometimes three abreast, being at first steered by 
sailors on board them. The admiral of the Antwerp 
fleet, Jacob Jacobson (whether designedly or through 
carelessness is not known), had committed the error of 
sending off the four squadrons of fire-ships too quickly 
one after another, and caused the two large mine-ships 
also to follow them too soon, and thus disturbed the 
intended order of attack. 

The array of vessels kept approaching, and the dark- 
ness of night still further heightened the extraordinary 
spectacle. As far as the eye could follow the course of 
the stream all was fire ; the fire-ships burning as bril- 
liantly as if they were themselves in the flames ; the 
surface of the water ghttered with light; the dykes 
and the batteries along the shore, the flags, arms, and 
accoutrements of the soldiers who hned the rivers as 
well as the bridges, were clearly distinguishable in the 
glare. With a mingled sensation of awe and pleasure 
the soldiers watched the unusual sight, which rather 
resembled a fete than a hostile preparation, but from 
the very strangeness of the contrast filled the mind with 
a mysterious awe. When the burning fleet had come 
within two thousand paces of the bridge, those who had 
. the charge of it lighted the matches, impelled the two 
mine-vessels into the middle of the stream, and leaving 
the others to the guidance of the current of the waves, 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 343 

they hastily made their escape in boats which had 
been kept in readiness. 

Their course, however, was irregular, and destitute 
of steersmen they arrived singly and separately at the 
floating works, where they continued hanging or were 
dashed off sidewise on the shore. The foremost powder- 
ships, which were intended to set fire to the floating 
works, were cast, ^^by the force of a squall which arose 
at that instant, on the Flemish coast. One of the two, 
the Fortune, grounded in its passage before it reached 
the bridge, and killed by its explosion some Spanish 
soldiers who were at work in a neighbouring battery. 
The other and larger fire-ship, called the Ho^e, nar- 
rowly escaped a similar fate. The current drove her 
against the floating defences toward the Flemish bank, 
where it remained hanging, and had it taken fire at 
that moment the greatest part of its effect would have 
been lost. Deceived by the flames which this machine, 
like the other vessels, emitted, the Spaniards took it 
for a common fire-ship, intended to burn the bridge of 
boats. And as they had seen them extinguished one 
after the other without further effect all fears were 
dispelled, and the Spaniards began to ridicule the prep- 
arations of the enemy, which had been ushered in with 
so much display and now had so absurd an end. Some 
of the boldest threw themselves into the stream in 
order to get a close view of the fire-ship and extinguish 
it, when by its weight it suddenly broke through, burst 
the floating work which had detained it, and drove 
with terrible force on the bridge of boats. All was 
now in commotion on the bridge, and the prince called 
to the sailors to keep the vessel off with poles, and to 
extinguish the flames before they caught the timbers. 

At this critical moment he was standing at the far- 
thest end of the left pier, where it formed a bastion in 
the water and joined the bridge of boats. By his side 
stood the Margrave of Kysburg, general of cavalry and 



344- REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

governor of the province of Artois, who had formerly 
served the states, but from a protector of the republic 
had become its worst enemy ; the Baron of Billy, 
governor of Friesland and commander of the German 
regiments; the Generals Cajetan and Guasto, with 
several of the principal officers ; all forgetful of their 
own danger and entirely occupied with averting the 
general calamity. At this moment a Spanish ensign 
approached the Prince of Parma and conjured him 
to remove from a place where his life was in manifest 
and imminent peril. No attention being paid to his 
entreaty he repeated it still more urgently, and at last 
fell at his feet and implored him in this one instance 
to take advice from his servant. While he said this he 
had laid hold of the duke's coat as though he wished 
forcibly to draw him away from the spot, and the 
latter, surprised rather at the man's boldness than per- 
suaded by his arguments, retired at last to the shore, 
attended by Cajetan and Guasto. He had scarcely 
time to reach the fort St. Maria at the end of the 
bridge when an explosion took place behind him, just 
as if the earth had burst or the vault of heaven given 
way. The duke and his whole army fell to the 
ground as dead, and several minutes elapsed before 
they recovered their consciousness. 

But then what a sight presented itself ! The waters 
of the Scheldt had been divided to its lowest depth, 
and driven with a surge which rose like a wall above 
the dam that confined it, so that all the fortifications 
on the banks were several feet under water. The earth 
shook for three miles around. Nearly the whole left 
pier, on which the fire-ship had been driven, with a 
part of the bridge of boats, had been burst and shat- 
tered to atoms, with all that was upon it ; spars, cannon, 
and men blown into the air. Even the enormous 
blocks of stone which had covered the mine had, by 
the force of the explosion, been hurled into the neigh- 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 345 

bouring fields, so that many of them were afterward 
dug out of the ground at a distance of a thousand 
paces from the bridge. Six vessels were buried, several 
had gone to pieces. But still more terrible was the 
carnage which the murderous machine had dealt 
amongst the soldiers. Five hundred, according to 
other reports even eight hundred, were sacrificed to 
its fury, without reckoning those who escaped with 
mutilated or injured bodies. The most opposite kinds 
of death were combined in this frightful moment. 
Some were consumed by the flames of the explosion, 
others scalded to death by the boihng water of the 
river, others stifled by the poisonous vapour of the 
brimstone; some were drowned in the stream, some 
buried under the hail of falling masses of rock, many 
cut to pieces by the knives and hooks, or shattered 
by the balls which were poured from the bowels of 
the machine. Some were found lifeless without any 
visible injury, having in all probabihty been killed 
by the mere concussion of the air. The spectacle 
which presented itself directly after the firing of the 
mine was fearful. Men were seen wedged between 
the pahsades of the bridge, or struggling to release 
themselves from beneath ponderous masses of rock, 
or hanging in the rigging of the ships ; and from all 
places and quarters the most heartrending cries for 
help arose, but as each was absorbed in his own safety 
these could only be answered by helpless wailings. 

Many had escaped in the most wonderful manner. 
An officer named Tucci was carried by the whirlwind 
like a feather high into the air, where he was for a 
moment suspended, and then dropped into the river, 
where he saved himself by swimming. Another was 
taken up by the force of the blast from the Flanders 
shore and deposited on that of Brabant, incurring 
merely a shght contusion on the shoulder; he felt, 
as he afterward said, during this rapid aerial transit, 



346 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

just as if he had been fired out of a cannon. The 
Prince of Parma himself had never been so near death 
as at that moment, when half a minute saved his life. 
He had scarcely set foot in the fort of St. Maria when 
he was lifted off his feet as if by a hurricane, and 
a beam which struck him on the head and shoulders 
stretched him senseless on the earth. For a long time 
he was beheved to be actually killed, many remember- 
ing to have seen him on the bridge only a few minutes 
before the fatal explosion. He was found at last be- 
tween his attendants, Cajetan and Guasto, raising him- 
self up with his hand on his sword ; and the intelligence 
stirred the spirits of the whole army. But vain would 
be the attempt to depict his feelings when he surveyed 
the devastation which a single moment had caused 
in the work of so many months. The bridge of boats, 
upon which all his hopes rested, was rent asunder ; 
a great part of his army was destroyed ; another portion 
maimed and rendered ineffective for many days ; many 
of his best officers were killed ; and, as if the present 
calamity were not sufficient, he had now to learn the 
painful intelligence that the Margrave of Eysburg, 
whom of all his officers he prized the highest, was 
missing. And yet the worst was still to come, for 
every moment the fleets of the enemy were to be 
expected from Antwerp and Lillo, to which this fear- 
ful position of the army would disable him from 
offering any effectual resistance. The bridge was 
entirely destroyed, and nothing could prevent the fleet 
from Zealand passing through in full sail; while the 
confusion of the troops in this first moment was so 
gTeat and general that it would have been impossible 
to give or obey orders, as many corps had lost their 
commanding officers, and many commanders their 
corps; and even the places where they had been 
stationed were no longer to be recognised amid the 
general ruin. Add to this that all the batteries on 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 347 

shore were under water, that several cannon were 
sunk, that the matches were wet, and the ammunition 
damaged. What a moment for the enemy if they had 
known how to avail themselves of it ! 

It will scarcely be beheved, however, that this 
success, which surpassed all expectation, was lost to 
Antwerp, simply because nothing was known of it. 
St. Aldegonde, indeed, as soon as the explosion of the 
mine was heard in the town, had sent out several 
galleys in the direction of the bridge, with orders to 
send up fire-balls and rockets the moment they had 
passed it, and then to sail with the intelligence straight 
on to Lillo, in order to bring up, without delay, the 
Zealand fleet, which had orders to cooperate. At the 
same time the admiral of Antwerp was ordered, as 
soon as the signal was given, to sail out with his 
vessels and attack the enemy in their first consterna- 
tion. But although a considerable reward was prom- 
ised to the boatmen sent to reconnoitre, thev did not 
venture near the enemy, but returned without efi'ecting 
their purpose, and reported that the bridge of boats 
was uninjured, and the fire-ship had had no effect. 
Even on the following day also no better measures 
were taken to learn the true state of the bridge ; and 
as the fleet at Lillo, in spite of the favoui-able wind, 
was seen to remain inactive, the belief that the fire- 
ships had accomplished nothing was confirmed. It 
did not seem to occur to any one that this very in- 
activity of the confederates, which misled the people of 
Antwerp, might also keep back the Zealanders at 
Lillo, as in fact it did. So signal an instance of neglect 
could only have occurred in a government which, with- 
out dignity of independence, was guided by the tumul- 
tuous multitude it ought to have governed. The more 
supine, however, they were themselves in opposing the 
enemy, the more violently did their rage boil against 
Gianibelh, whom the frantic mob would have torn 



348 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

in pieces if they could have caught him. For two 
days the engineer was in the most imminent danger, 
until at last, on the third morning, a courier from 
Lillo, who had swam under the bridge, brought au- 
thentic intelligence of its having been destroyed, but 
at the same time announced that it had been repaired. 
This rapid restoration of the bridge was really a 
miraculous effort of the Prince of Parma. Scarcely 
had he recovered from the shock, which seemed to 
have overthrown all his plans, when he contrived, 
with wonderful presence of mind, to prevent all its 
evil consequences. The absence of the enemy's fleet 
at this decisive moment revived his hopes. The ruin- 
ous state of the bridge appeared to be a secret to them, 
and though it was impossible to repair in a few 
hours the work of so many months, yet a great point 
would be gained if it could be done even in appear- 
ance. All his men were immediately set to work to 
remove the ruins, to raise the timbers which had been 
thrown down, to replace those which were demolished, 
and to fill up the chasms with ships. The duke him- 
self did not refuse to share in the toil, and his example 
was followed by all his officers. Stimulated by this 
popular behaviour, the common soldiers exerted them- 
selves to the utmost ; the work was carried on during 
the whole night under the constant sounding of drums 
and trumpets, which were distributed along the bridge 
to drown the noise of the work-people. With dawn 
of day few traces remained of the night's havoc; and 
although the bridge was restored only in appearance, it 
nevertheless deceived the spy, and consequently no 
attack was made upon it. In the meantime the prince 
contrived to make the repairs solid, nay, even to in- 
troduce some essential alterations in the structure. In 
order to guard against similar accidents for the future, 
a part of the bridge of boats was made movable, so 
that in case of necessity it could be taken away and 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 349 

a passage opened to the fire-ships. His loss of men 
was supphed from the garrisons of the adjoining places, 
and by a German regiment which arrived very oppor- 
tunely from Guelders. He filled up the vacancies of 
the officers who were killed, and in doing this he did 
not forget the Spanish ensign who had saved his life. 

The people of Antwerp, after learning the success of 
their mine-ship, now did homage to the inventor with 
as much extravagance as they had a short time before 
mistrusted him, and they encouraged his genius to 
new attempts. Gianibelli now actually obtained the 
number of flat-bottomed vessels which he had at first 
demanded in vain, and these he equipped in such a 
manner that they struck with irresistible force on the 
bridge, and a second time also burst and separated it. 
But this time the wind was contrary to the Zealand 
fleet, so that they could not put out, and thus the 
prince obtained once more the necessary respite to 
repair the damage. The Archimedes of Antwerp was 
not deterred by any of these disappointments. Anew 
he fitted out two large vessels which were armed with 
iron hooks and similar instruments in order to tear 
asunder the bridge. But when the moment came for 
these vessels to get under weigh no one was found 
ready to embark in them. The engineer was therefore 
obliged to think of a plan for giving to these machines 
such a self -impulse that, without being guided by a steers- 
man, they would keep the middle of the stream, and 
not, like the former ones, be driven on the bank by 
the wind. One of his workmen, a German, here hit 
upon a strange invention, if Strada's description of it 
is to be credited. He affixed a sail under the vessel, 
which was to be acted upon by the water, just as an 
ordinary sail is by the wind, and could thus impel the 
ship with the whole force of the current. The result 
proved the correctness of his calculation ; for this vessel, 
with the position of its sails reversed, not only kept 



350 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

the centre of the stream, but also ran against the 
bridge with such impetuosity that the enemy had not 
time to open it, and was actually burst asunder. But 
all these results were of no service to the town, because 
the attempts were made at random and were supported 
by no adequate force. A new fire-ship, equipped like 
the former, which had succeeded so well, and which 
Gianibelli had filled with four thousand pounds of the 
finest powder, was not even used ; for a new mode of 
attempting their deliverance had now occurred to the 
people of Antwerp. 

Terrified by so many futile attempts from endeav- 
ouring to clear a passage for vessels on the river by 
force, they at last came to the determination of doing 
without the stream entirely. They remembered the 
example of the town of Leyden, which, when besieged 
by the Spaniards ten years before, had saved itself by 
opportunely inundating the surrounding country, and 
it was resolved to imitate this example. Between 
Lillo and Stabroek, in the district of Bergen, a wide 
and somewhat sloping plain extends as far as Ant- 
werp, being protected by numerous embankments and 
counter-embankments against the irruptions of the 
East Scheldt. Nothing more was requisite than to 
break these dams, when the whole plain would become 
a sea, navigable by flat-bottomed vessels almost to 
the very walls of Antwerp. If this attempt should 
succeed, the Duke of Parma might keep the Scheldt 
guarded with his bridge of boats as long as he pleased ; 
a new river would be formed, which, in case of ne- 
cessity, would be equally serviceable for the time. 
This was the very plan which the Prince of Orange 
had at the commencement of the siege recommended, 
and in which he had been strenuously, but unsuccess- 
fully, seconded by St. Aldegonde, because some of the 
citizens could not be persuaded to sacrifice their own 
fields. In the present emergency they reverted to 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 351 

this last resource, but circumstances in the meantime 
had greatly changed 

The plain in question is intersected by a broad and 
high dam, which takes its name from the adjacent 
Castle of Cowenstein, and extends for three miles 
from the village of Stabroek, in Bergen, as far as the 
Scheldt, with the great dam of which it unites near 
Ordam. Beyond this dam no vessels can proceed, 
however high the tide, and the sea would be vainly 
turned into the fields as long as such an embankment 
remained in the way, which would prevent the Zealand 
vessels from descending into the plain before Antwerp. 
The fate of the town would therefore depend upon the 
demohtion of this Cowenstein dam ; but, foreseeing 
this, the Prince of Parma had, immediately on com- 
mencing the blockade, taken possession of it, and 
spared no pains to render it tenable to the last. At 
the village of Stabroek, Count Mansfeld was encamped 
with the greatest part of his army, and by means of this 
very Cowenstein dam kept open the communication 
with the bridge, the headquarters, and the Spanish 
magazines at Calloo. Thus the armv formed an un- 
interrupted line from Stabroek in Brabant, as far as 
Bevern in Flanders, intersected indeed, but not broken 
by the Scheldt, and which could not be cut off with- 
out a sanguinary conflict. On the dam itself within 
proper distances five different batteries had been erected, 
the command of which was given to the most vahant 
officers ia the army. Nay, as the Prince of Parma 
could not doubt that now the whole fury of the war 
would be turned to this point, he entrusted the defence 
of the bridge to Count Mansfeld, and resolved to defend 
this important post himself. The war, therefore, now 
assumed a different aspect, and the theatre of it was 
entirely changed. 

Both above and below Lillo, the Xetherlanders had in 
several places cut through the dam, which follows the 



352 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

Brabant shore of the Scheldt ; and where a short time 
before had been green fields, a new element now pre- 
sented itself, studded with masts and boats. A Zealand 
fleet, commanded by Count Hohenlohe, navigated the 
inundated fields, and made repeated movements against 
the Cowenstein dam, without, however, attempting a 
serious attack on it, while another fleet showed itseK 
in the Scheldt, threatening the two coasts alternately 
with a landing, and occasionally the bridge of boats 
with an attack. For several days this manoeuvre was 
practised on the enemy, who, uncertain of the quarter 
whence an attack was to be expected, would, it was 
hoped, be exhausted by continual watching, and by 
degrees lulled into security by so many false alarms. 
Antwerp had promised Count Hohenlohe to support 
the attack on the dam by a flotilla from the town ; 
three beacons on the principal tower were to be the 
signal that this was on the way. When, therefore, on 
a dark night the expected columns of fire really as- 
cended above Antwerp, Count Hohenlohe immediately 
caused five hundred of his troops to scale the dam 
between two of the enemy's redoubts, who surprised 
part of the Spanish garrison asleep, and cut down the 
others who attempted to defend themselves. In a 
short time they had gained a firm footing upon the 
dam, and were just on the point of disembarking 
the remainder of their force, two thousand in number, 
when the Spaniards in the adjoining redoubts marched 
out, and, favoured by the narrowness of the ground, 
made a desperate attack on the crowded Zealanders. 
The guns from the neighbouring batteries opened upon 
the approaching fleet, and thus rendered the landing 
of the remaining troops impossible ; and as there were 
no signs of cooperation on the part of the city, the 
Zealanders were overpowered after a short conflict and 
again driven down from the dam. The victorious 
Spaniards pursued them through the water as far as 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS . 353 

their boats, sunk many of the latter, and compelled the 
rest to retreat with heavy loss. Count Hohenlohe 
threw the blame of this defeat upon the inhabitants 
of Antwerp, who had deceived him by a false signal, 
and it certainly must be attributed to the bad arrange- 
ment of both parties that the attempt failed of better 
success. 

But at last the allies determined to make a system- 
atic assault on the enemy with their combined force, 
and to put an end to the siege by a grand attack as 
well on the dam as on the bridge. The 16th of May, 
1585, was fixed upon for the execution of this design, 
and both armies used their utmost endeavours to 
make this day decisive. The force of the Hollanders 
and Zealanders, united to that of Antwerp, exceeded 
two hundred ships, to man which they had stripped 
their towns and citadels, and with this force they 
purposed to attack the Cowenstein dam on both sides. 
The bridge over the Scheldt was to be assailed with 
new machines of Gianibelh's invention, and the Duke 
of Parma thereby hindered from assisting the defence 
of the dam. 

Alexander, apprised of the danger which threatened 
him, spared nothing on his side to meet it with 
energy. Immediately after getting possession of the 
dam he had caused redoubts to be erected at five 
different places, and had given the command of them 
to the most experienced officers of the army. The 
first of these, which was called the Cross battery, 
was erected on the spot where the Cowenstein dam 
enters the great embankment of the Scheldt, and 
makes with the latter the form of a cross ; the Span- 
iard, Mondragone, was appointed to the command 
of this battery. A thousand paces farther on, near 
the castle of Cowenstein, was posted the battery of 
St. James, which was entrusted to the command of 
Camillo di Monte. At an equal distance from this 



354 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

lay the battery of St. George, and at a thousand paces 
from the latter, the Pile battery, under the command 
of Gamboa, so called from the pile-work on which 
it rested ; at the farthest end of the dam, near Stabroek, 
was the fifth redoubt, where Count Mansfeld, with 
Capizucchi, an Italian, commanded. All these forts 
the prince now strengthened with artillery and men; 
on both sides of the dam, and along its whole extent, 
he caused piles to be driven, as well to render the 
main embankment firmer, as to impede the labour 
of the pioneers, who were to dig through it. 

Early on the morning of the 16th of May the 
enemy's forces were in motion. With the dusk of 
dawn there came floating down from Lillo, over the in- 
undated country, four burning vessels, which so alarmed 
the guards upon the dams, who recollected the former 
terrible explosion, that they hastily retreated to the 
next battery. This was exactly what the enemy 
desired. In these vessels, which had merely the 
appearance of fire-ships, soldiers were concealed, who 
now suddenly jumped ashore, and succeeded in mount- 
ing the dam at the undefended spot, between the St. 
George and Pile batteries. Immediately afterward the 
whole Zealand fleet showed itself, consisting of numer- 
ous ships-of-war, transports, and a crowd of smaller 
craft, which were laden with great sacks of earth, 
wool, fascines, gabions, and the like, for throwing up 
breastworks wherever necessary. The ships-of-war 
were furnished with powerful artillery, and numer- 
ously and bravely manned, and a whole army of 
pioneers accompanied it in order to dig through the 
dam as soon as it should be in their possession. 

The Zealanders had scarcely begun on their side to 
ascend the dam when the fleet of Antwerp advanced 
from Osterweel and attacked it on the other. A high 
breastwork was hastily thrown up between the two 
nearest hostile batteries, so as at once to divide the 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 355 

two garrisons and to cover the pioneers. The latter, 
several hundreds in number, now fell to work with 
their spades on both sides of the dam, and dug with 
such energy that hopes were entertained of soon seeing 
the two seas united. But meanwhile the Spaniards 
also had gained time to hasten to the spot from the 
two nearest redoubts, and make a sphited assault, 
while the guns from the battery of St. George played 
incessantly on the enemy's fleet. A furious battle 
now raged in the quarter where they were cutting 
through the dyke and throwing up the breastworks. 
The Zealanders had drawn a strong Hne of troops 
around the pioneers to keep the enemy from interrupt- 
ing their work, and in this confusion of battle, in the 
midst of a storm of bullets from the enemy, often up 
to the breast in water, among the dead and dying, the 
pioneers pursued their work, under the incessant ex- 
hortations of the merchants, who impatiently waited 
to see the dam opened and their vessels in safety. 
The importance of the result, which it might be said 
depended entirely upon their spades, appeared to ani- 
mate even the common labourers with heroic courage. 
Solely intent upon their task, they neither saw nor 
heard the work of death which was going on around 
them, and as fast as the foremost ranks fell those 
behind them pressed into their places. Their opera- 
tions were greatly impeded by the piles which had 
been driven in, but still more by the attacks of the 
Spaniards, who burst with desperate courage through 
the thickest of the enemy, stabbed the pioneers in 
the pits where they were digging, and filled up again 
with dead bodies the cavities which the Hving had 
made. At last, however, when most of their officers 
were killed or wounded, and the number of the enemy 
constantly increasing, while fresh labourers were sup- 
plying the place of those who had been slain, the 
courage of these valiant troops began to give way, and 



356 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

they thought it advisable to retreat to their batteries. 
Now, therefore, the confederates saw themselves mas- 
ters of the whole extent of the dam, from Fort St. 
George as far as the Pile battery. As, however, it 
seemed too long to wait for the thorough demolition 
of the dam, they hastily unloaded a Zealand transport, 
and brought the cargo over the dam to a vessel of 
Antwerp, with which Count Hohenlohe sailed in tri- 
umph to that city. The sight of the provisions at 
once filled the inhabitants with joy, and as if the 
victory was already won, they gave themselves up to 
the wildest exultation. The bells were rung, the 
cannon discharged, and the inhabitants, transported 
by their unexpected success, hurried to the Osterweel 
gate, to await the store-ships which were supposed to 
be at hand. 

In fact, fortune had never smiled so favourably on 
the besieged as at that moment. The enemy, ex- 
hausted and dispirited, had thrown themselves into 
their batteries, and, far from being able to struggle 
with the victors for the post they had conquered, they 
found themselves rather besieged in the places where 
they had taken refuge. Some companies of Scots, led 
by their brave colonel, Balfour, attacked the battery 
of St. George, which, however, was relieved, but not 
without severe loss, by Camillo di Monte, who hastened 
thither from St. James's battery. The Pile battery was 
in a much worse condition, it being hotly cannonaded 
by the ships, and threatened every moment to crumble 
to pieces. Gamboa, who commanded it, lay wounded, 
and it was unfortunately deficient in artillery to keep 
the enemy at a distance. The breastwork, too, which 
the Zealanders had thrown up between this battery 
and that of St. George cut off all hope of assistance 
from the Scheldt. If, therefore, the Belgians had only 
taken advantage of this weakness and inactivity of the 
enemy to proceed with zeal and perseverance in cut- 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 357 

ting through the dam, there is no doubt that a passage 
might have been made, and thus put an end to the 
whole siege. But here also the same want of consist- 
ent energy showed itself which had marked the con- 
duct of the people of Antwerp during the whole course 
of the siege. The zeal with which the work had been 
commenced cooled in proportion to the success which 
attended it. It was soon found too tedious to dig 
through the dyke ; it seemed far easier to transfer 
the cargoes fi'om the large store-ships into smaller 
ones, and carry these to the town with the flood tide. 
St. Aldegonde and Hohenlohe, instead of remaining 
to animate the industry of the workmen by their per- 
sonal presence, left the scene of action at the decisive 
moment, in order, by sailing to the town with a corn 
vessel, to win encomiums on their wisdom and valour. 
While both parties were fighting on the dam with 
the most obstinate fury the bridge over the Scheldt 
had been attacked from Antwerp with new machines, 
in order to give employment to the prince in that 
quarter. But the sound of the firing soon apprised 
him of what was going on at the dyke, and as soon 
as he saw the bridge clear he hastened to support the 
defence of the dyke. Followed by two hundred Span- 
ish pikemen, he flew to the place of attack, and arrived 
just in time to prevent the complete defeat of his 
troops. He hastily posted some guns which he had 
brought with him in the two nearest redoubts, and 
maintained from thence a heavy fire upon the enemy's 
ships. He placed himself at the head of his men, and, 
with his sword in one hand and shield in the other, 
led them against the enemy. The new^s of his arrival, 
which quickly spread from one end of the dyke to the 
other, revived the drooping spirits of his troops, and 
the conflict recommenced with renewed violence, made 
still more murderous by the nature of the ground 
where it was fought. Upon the narrow ridge of the 



358 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

dam, which in many places was not more than nine 
paces broad, about five thousand combatants were 
fighting; so confined was the spot upon which the 
strength of both armies was assembled, and which 
was to decide the whole issue of the siege. "With the 
Antwerpers the last bulwark of their city was at 
stake ; with the Spaniards it was to determine the 
whole success of their undertaking. Both parties 
fought with a courage which despair alone could 
inspire. From both the extremities of the dam the 
tide of war rolled itself toward the centre, where 
the Zealanders and Antwerpers had the advantage, 
and where they had collected their whole strength. 
The Italians and Spaniards, inflamed by a noble emula- 
tion, pressed on from Stabroek ; and from the Scheldt 
the Walloons and Spaniards advanced, with their gen- 
eral at their head. While the former endeavoured 
to relieve the Pile battery, which was hotly pressed 
by the enemy, both by sea and land, the latter threw 
themselves on the breastwork, between the St. George 
and the Pile batteries, with a fury which carried every- 
thing before it. Here the flower of the Belgian troops 
fought behind a well-fortified rampart, and the guns 
of the two fleets covered this important post. The 
prince was already pressing forward to attack this 
formidable defence with his small army when he 
received intelhgence that the Italians and Spaniards, 
under Capizucchi and Aquila, had forced their way, 
sword in hand, into the Pile battery, had got possession 
of it, and were now likewise advancing from the other 
side against the enemy's breastwork. Before this in- 
trenchment, therefore, the whole force of both armies 
was now collected, and both sides used their utmost 
efforts to carry and to defend this position. The 
Netherlanders on board the fleet, loath to remain idle 
spectators of the conflict, sprang ashore from their 
vessels. Alexander attacked the breastwork on one 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 359 

side, Count Mansfeld on the other ; five assaults were 
made, and five times they were repulsed. The Nether- 
landers in this decisive moment surpassed themselves ; 
never in the whole course of the war had they fought 
with such determination. But it was the Scotch and 
EngHsh in particular who bafifled the attempts of the 
enemy by their valiant resistance. As no one would 
advance to the attack in the quarter where the Scotch 
fought, the duke himseK led on the troops, with a 
javelin in his hand, and up to his breast in water. At 
last, after a protracted struggle, the forces of Count 
Mansfeld succeeded with their halberds and pikes in 
making a breach in the breastwork, and by raising 
themselves on one another's shoulders scaled the para- 
pet. Barthelemy Toralva, a Spanish captain, was the 
first who showed himself on the top; and almost at 
the same instant the Italian, Capizucchi, appeared upon 
the edge of it ; and thus the contest of valour was 
decided with equal glory for both nations. It is worth 
while to notice here the manner in which the Prince 
of Parma, who was made arbiter of this emulous strife, 
encouraged this delicate sense of honour among his 
warriors. He embraced the Itahan, Capizucchi, in 
presence of the troops, and acknowledged aloud that 
it was principally to the courage of this officer that 
he owed the capture of the breastwork. He caused 
the Spanish captain, Toralva, who was dangerously 
wounded, to be conveyed to his own quarters at 
Stabroek, laid on his own bed, and covered with the 
cloak which he himself had worn the day before the 
battle. 

After the capture of the breastwork the victory no 
longer remained doubtful. The Dutch and Zealand 
troops, who had disembarked to come to close action 
with the enemy, at once lost their courage when they 
looked about them and saw the vessels, which were 
their last refuge, putting off from the shore. 



360 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

For the tide had begun to ebb, and the commanders 
of the fleet, from fear of being stranded with their 
heavy transports, and, in case of an unfortunate issue 
to the engagement, becoming the prey of the enemy, 
retired from the dam, and made for deep water. No 
sooner did Alexander perceive this than he pointed out 
to his troops the flying vessels, and encouraged them to 
finish the action with an enemy who already despaired 
of their safety. The Dutch auxiliaries were the first 
that gave way, and their example was soon followed by 
the Zealanders. Hastily leaping from the dam, they 
endeavoured to reach the vessels by wading or swim- 
ming; but from their disorderly flight they impeded 
one another, and fell in heaps under the swords of the 
pursuers. Many perished even in the boats, as each 
strove to get on board before the other, and several 
vessels sank under the weight of the numbers who 
rushed into them. The Antwerpers, who fought for 
their liberty, their hearths, their faith, were the last 
who retreated, but this very circumstance augmented 
their disaster. Many of their vessels were outstripped 
by the ebb-tide, and grounded within reach of the 
enemy's cannon, and were consequently destroyed with 
all on board. Crowds of fugitives endeavoured by 
swimming to gain the other transports, which had got 
into deep water ; but such was the rage and boldness of 
the Spaniards that they swam after them with their 
swords between their teeth, and dragged many even 
from the ships. The victory of the king's troops was 
complete but bloody ; for of the Spaniards about eight 
hundred, of the Netherlanders some thousands (without 
reckoning those who were drowned), were left on the 
field, and on both sides many of the principal nobihty 
perished. More than thirty vessels, with a large supply 
of provisions for Antwerp, fell into the hands of the 
victors, with one hundred and fifty cannon and other 
military stores. The dam, the possession of which had 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 361 

been so dearly maintained, was pierced in thirteen dif- 
ferent places, and the bodies of those who had cut 
through it were now used to stop up the openings. 

The following day a transport of immense size and 
singular construction fell into the hands of the royalists. 
It formed a floating castla, and had been destined for 
the attack on the Cowenstein dam. The people of 
Antwerp had built it at an immense expense at the 
very time when the engineer Gianibelli's useful propo- 
sals had been rejected on account of the cost they en- 
tailed, and this ridiculous monster was called by the 
proud title of " End of the War," which appellation was 
afterward changed for the more appropriate sobriquet 
of " Money lost ! " When this vessel was launched it 
turned out, as every sensible person had foretold, that 
on account of its unwieldy size it was utterly impos- 
sible to steer it, and it could hardly be floated by the 
highest tide. With great difficulty it was worked as 
far as Ordam, where, deserted by the tide, it went 
aground, and fell a prey to the enemy. 

The attack upon the Cowenstein dam was the last 
attempt which was made to relieve Antwerp. From 
this time the courage of the besieged sank, and the 
magistracy of the town vainly laboured to inspirit with 
distant hopes the lowier orders, on whom the present 
distress weighed heaviest. Hitherto the price of bread 
had been kept down to a tolerable rate, although the 
quahty of it continued to deteriorate ; by degrees, how- 
ever, provisions became so scarce that a famine was 
evidently near at hand. Still hopes were entertained 
of being able to hold out, at least until the corn between 
the town and the farthest batteries, which was already 
in full ear, could be reaped ; but before that could be - 
done the enemy had carried the last outwork, and had 
appropriated the whole harvest to their use. At last 
the neighbouring and confederate town of Malines fell 
into the enemy's hands, and with its fall vanished the 



362 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

only remaiiiiug hope of getting supplies from Brabant. 
As there was, therefore, no longer any means of in- 
creasing the stock of provisions, nothing was left but 
to diminish the consumers. All useless persons, all 
strangers, nay, even the women and children were to 
be sent away out of the town, but this proposal was 
too revolting to humanity to be carried into execution. 
Another plan, that of expelling the Cathohc inhab- 
itants, exasperated them so much that it had almost 
ended in open mutiny. And thus St. Aldegonde at 
last saw himself compelled to yield to the riotous 
clamours of the populace, and on the 17th of August, 
1585, to make overtures to the Duke of Parma for the 
surrender of the town. 



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